Slovak contemporary art 1960-2000

The exhibition compiled from the collection of the First Slovak Investors Group in Bratislava was organised by art critic Zuzana Barto¹ová, who conceived of the collection and is its curator, and who was President of the Slovak Section of AICA until 2000. The focus of the material is constituted by artworks belonging to the unofficial art of the 1970s and 80s. Beyond this, the aim of the exhibition is to demonstrate the uniqueness of Slovak visual art and at the same time, its universality. The collection has already been displayed in a number of Slovak galleries, as well as abroad (Prague, Vienna, Passau, Cracow).

Three life oeuvres presented in detail offer a deeper view into contemporary Slovak visual art through the internationally recognised artists J. ®elibská, A. Mlynárèik and J. Koller. Alongside these trajectories, the pluralism of Slovak art is represented by the informel tendency of the 1960s, new figuration (J. Jankoviè), gestural abstraction and Pop Art (S. Filka, J. ®elibská). Thus, it is not only the introverted and existential tendencies, from lyrical abstraction to figurative expression, that played a significant role, but also other means that employed the rational point of departure of composition, amalgamated with the avant-garde world view. Thus, there was also a great impact on constructivism (A. Klimo, J. Bartusz), which included the prominent female artists A. Miertu¹ová, T. Klimová and D. Binderová. The exhibition also presents M. Dobe¹t's motion and light compositions.

Action and conceptual art (R. Sikora, P. Barto¹, A. Mlynárèik, J. Koller, D. Tóth, J. Meli¹) were repudiated by the official cultural politics following the occupation of Czechoslovakia (1968). But among the dismissed artists were I. ©tepán with his experimental objects, V. Havrilla and his individual mythology, as well as M. Bartuszová and her installations.

In the 1970s and 80s, more artists appeared on the stage of unofficial art, who were engaged in painting, drawing and graphics (M. Mindroch, D. Fischer and M. Boèkay, as well as V. Kordo¹, making his past artworks his own through his photographed actions.

The exhibition presents the rebirth of painting with the aid of the compositions of a younger generation of artists, S. Bubánová, I. Csudai and L. Teren. The installation art of this younger generation is represented by the work of I. Németh.