From sacred art to modern art
For a long time, pictorial art in Slovakia was a domain reserved for the sacred, as in the case of the famous altar in the Church of St. James by the master Paul of Levoča (1480-1546), a jewel of Gothic painting. Until the 19thcentury , sacred art and portraits were the most common forms of expression.
Slovak painting developed formally during the 19th century. One of the most important figures of this period is Ladislav Mednansky (1852-1919), representative of Slovak Impressionism. Two other painters from this period, trained at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, express the birth of Slovak nationalism in the arts: Peter Michal Bohuň (1822-1879) and Jozef Božetech Klemens (1817-1883).
In the twentieth century, there is no single predominant artistic movement in Slovakia. The work of Slovak artists bears the hallmarks of the great Western currents. Examples include Šimerová-Martinčeková (1905-2005), inspired by the French cubist movement, or the surrealist Imro Weiner-Kráľ (1901-1978). Others are influenced by local folk iconography, reinterpreted in the light of modernism, such as Ľudovít Fulla (1902-1980), whose work can be admired at Ľudovít Fulla Gallery in Ružomberok, and Martin Benka (1888-1971). The latter, dubbed "the alchemist of Slovak beauty" by his contemporaries, was a major influence on the artists of his time and on future generations. Benka studied with Czech artist Alois Kalvoda, and inherited his attachment to Art Nouveau and Impressionism. The artist explores local landscapes, depicted in soft colors and highlighting peasant labor, or traditional interiors with a warm atmosphere. In addition to his paintings and drawings, he devoted himself to music, illustration, stamps, sgraffiti, etc., leaving an important mark on his country's culture. Another figure of modern Slovak painting is Koloman Sokol (1902-2003), who only gained international recognition in the 1980s with his style inspired by the German Expressionists.
Under the Communist regime, the creation of the SNG, the Slovak National Gallery, made it possible to disseminate and acquire contemporary creations and to contribute to the support of creativity, although this was limited to works validated by the government. Today, it remains a must for art-loving visitors to Bratislava, where you can admire the work of most of the artists mentioned above. Another key venue for discovering local modern art is the Nedbalka Gallery, which offers a unique panorama of Slovak painting and sculpture, in a magnificent architectural setting (it is often compared to the Guggenheim Museum in New York).
The fall of the Soviet bloc, a new breath for Slovak contemporary art
With the weakening of Soviet influence in the 1980s, followed by the collapse of the Eastern bloc, the arts were liberalized, and the 1990s saw an explosion of new forms of expression. New media such as performance, installation and video art became popular at the same time as political discourse was loosened. Although the Slovak art scene is not as attractive as that of its Austrian, Polish or Romanian neighbors, the country is slowly asserting itself, driven by a dynamic youth connected to Western cultural centers. Artistic activity is concentrated in Bratislava, where galleries, museums and art centers play an important role in the promotion and recognition of these artists. We recommend the Kunsthalle Bratislava, the Zahorian & Van Espen Gallery and the Danubiana Meulensteen Art Museum, in the south of the city. Outside the capital, the Kunsthalle/Hala Umenia in Košice offers an excellent program.
Many contemporary Slovak artists have studied at the Bratislava Academy of Fine Arts, as in the case of Blažej Baláž, who has since become a professor there. Born in 1958, this internationally acclaimed artist is considered one of the fathers of contemporary Slovak art, and explores a wide range of media: painting, performance, drawing, printed images, mail art and more. His work, often described as "neo-conceptual", has a strong political dimension and explores social and environmental issues. He is particularly renowned for his singular use of text as a medium. Several of his works are included in the collection of the Slovak National Gallery.
Slovak and Czech photography, a dialogue in constant renewal
Slovak photography has close ties with Czech photography, with many Czech photographers having taught in Slovakia, and conversely, many Slovak photographers living in Prague. But Slovak photography has not developed in the shadow of Czech photography, and has its own distinctive features.
Long under the thumb of the aesthetic diktats imposed by the Soviet regime, Slovak photography only really blossomed after the Velvet Revolution of 1989. However, as we shall see, the twentieth century saw a number of artists or groups of artists whose work stood out for its creativity in the face of the political constraints with which they had to contend. Thus, alongside official propaganda photography, a social documentary photography that escaped ideological prejudice developed, endeavoring to highlight a sublimated Slovak reality. Photography bears witness to the changes in Slovak society - essentially rural in the 1920s, then mainly industrial by the end of the 1990s - and the impact this has had on the daily lives of its inhabitants.
One of the first great Slovak art photographers was Milos Dohnany (1904-1944). Influenced by classical modernism, his images, with their dynamic angles and sharp contrasts, compose still lifes from industrial objects and materials - cardboard packs, molded glass, corrugated cardboard- giving them an almost abstract appearance.
Under political restrictions, the 1950s-1960s saw a return to an emphasis on everyday poetry, with images illustrating the streets of Bratislava or its inhabitants, with portraits of passers-by, lovers or children. The photographs of Jan Cifra (1929-1959), astonishing in their tenderness and simplicity, are representative of this period. They show musicians battling snowstorms or gazing through a fogged-up café window, old women chatting, children on a merry-go-round, and so on. Martin Martincek, for his part, illustrates rural Slovakia and the extreme poverty in which its people live. Cemeteries, fields, foggy villages, characters worn out by work, dying traditions are all subjects on which the artist casts his eye, sublimating them despite the prevailing unhappiness.
The late 1970s and 1980s were an explosive period for apolitical and experimental Slovak photography. The situation was reversed in relation to Czech photography, as Slovak artists moved closer to international avant-garde trends and dabbled in conceptualism, while the Czechs remained more classical, concentrating on social themes. Today, some speak of a "Slovak new wave", represented by photographers such as Jano Pavlík, Rudo Prekop, Vasil Stanko, Tono Stano, Martin Štrba, Miro Švolík, Kamil Varga and Peter Župník, who studied at the renowned Prague Film Academy (FAMU), which also has a section dedicated to photography. Their style is not documentary, as is usually the case at this school, but is generally staged. As their work cannot be directly political, they turn to personal universes that nonetheless reflect a strong desire for freedom. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, photography became radically liberalized, with works such as those by Jana Zelibska, who took erotic photographs and cut them out, retouched them or completed them by inserting light bulbs into the models' private parts. The decadent images of this period are charged with a mystique, a whimsical and exaggerated theatricality that illustrates the end of an era.
Street art, a late blooming practice
Although street art emerged relatively late in Slovakia, the community now boasts a large number of artists. Inspired by Czech works, it was in Bratislava that the first graffiti artists made their mark, reportedly under the Lafranconi bridge in 1995. But graffiti didn't really become popular until the early 2000s, with a particular infatuation for the railway station, a hangout for young artists. Nevertheless, wild tags are repressed as vandalism, and the city tries to calm this trend by offering legal spaces for expression. One of Slovakia's annual street art events is the Street Art Festival Bratislava, usually held in June, which seeks to highlight the practice as a positive instrument for urban revitalization. The festival also features concerts and performances. Finally, one of Bratislava's leading street art organizations is ArtAttack. It actively supports local creation, publishes a specialized magazine, organizes festivals and exhibitions, and has even created its own clothing brand and music label. Visit www.artattack.sk to find out more about this growing art form!
