By Winding Roads / Slovak Modernism from the Private Collection

Authors: Janko Alexy, Gejza Angyal, Martin Benka, Ladislav Čemický, Ľudovít Čordák, Jan Hála, Vincent Hložník, Bedrich Hoffstädter, Viliam Chmel, Anton Jasusch, Aurel Kajlich, Gejza Kieselbach, Max Kurth, Gustáv Mallý, Peter Matejka, Dezider Milly, Teodor Jozef Mousson, Ján Mudroch, Július Nemčík, Zolo Palugyay, Edita Spannerová, Armand Schönberger, Július Szabó, Ester Šimerová-Martinčeková, Imro Weiner-Kráľ, Teodor Zemplényi

The premier of this unique exhibition presents works by 26 renowned figures of the Slovak modernist movement from an East Slovak private collection. The exhibition is part of the Themes dramaturgical cycle of exhibitions and is presented with the support of Beneti s.r.o.

The exhibition not only tells the story of Slovak modernist painting but also relates an example of art collecting in which the collector has managed – in this fortunate case – to create a single-themed collection from a wide variety of sources with an emphasis on quality, relying on a sense of aesthetic qualities, artistic values and a firm grasp of art history. The curatorial aim is to offer an overview of the development of Slovak modernist painting in the first half of the 20th century through representative artworks with the broadest possible geographical scope but also through a particular focus on the art of the “Generation of 1909” given the high number and quality of the works from this milieu which appear in the collection.

The painting of early modernism with its luministic, plein air approach is represented by works by Max Kurth, Teodor Zemplényi and Ľudovít Čordák, with Gejza Kieselbach and Teodor Mousson continuing to work in this vein into the mid-20^th century. Audiences can trace the development of the subsequent period in works by the founding generation of modernism (Martin Benka, Janko Alexy) and the subsequent Generation of 1909 (Ján Mudroch, Peter Matejka, Dezider Milly, Ester Šimerová) and the Generation of 1919 (Vincent Hložník, Viliam Chmel). In parallel to these developments, several renowned individual artists (Imro Weiner-Kráľ) also evolved their own unique creative approaches. The exhibition does not neglect the work of other artistic milieus such as the circle of central Slovakia (Gejza Angyal), the Košice circle (Anton Jasusch) or the circle of Hungarian artists based in the south of Slovakia (Július Szabó). The selection also features some works from the years after 1950, with figures who emerged in the interwar period remaining faithful to the tenets of modernism well into the second half of the 20^th century (Dezider Milly, Imro Weiner-Kráľ, Ester Šimerová). Among the true jewels of the collection are works such as Summer by the Lake, Zemplény’s ode to life from 1914, the period of the belle époque, Milly’s dark vision from 1947 titled In the Studio, and the cubo-expressionist Townscape, a work from the late 1920s and early 1930s by the Hlohovec-born artist Armand Schonberger.

Mgr. Jozef Ridilla, exhibition curator