The Collection of Modern and Contemporary Plastic Art of the 20th and
21st centuries contains relatively consistent and extensive collections
of the most significant figures of plastic art in Slovakia. The origin
of this collection is connected with the beginnings of the gallery and
numerous sets of works document the development of modern and
contemporary plastic art in Slovakia - from intimate plastic art,
monumental works, through medal design, to works extending beyond the
boundaries of classical sculpture towards object and installation (from
1990 in the Collection of Other Media).
The collections of
figures from the turn of the 20th century, which record the beginnings
of Slovak plastic art (Ján Koniarek, Alojz Rigele, Róbert Kühmayer and
Jozef Arpád Murmann) are also part of this collection. However, in terms
of extent as well as uniqueness, the greatest attention belongs to the
two most distinctive figures of modern Slovak plastic art - Jozef Kostka
and Rudolf Uher. Furthermore, the collection focuses on the decisive
movements in plastic art from the beginning of the 1950s through the
works of the sculptors of the Group of Mikuláš Galanda, particularly the
more complex sets of works of its two central figures - Vladimír
Kompánek and Andrej Rudavský.
During the period of
normalization, plastic art was under strong social and political
pressure. Due to its nature and importance (use in architecture and in
public space) it was expected to fulfil the requirements of socialist
art to the greatest extent (especially together with the architecture).
This distinctively influenced the creation of the SNG collection, which
was from the 1970s oriented on the works from exhibitions of engaged
work in compliance with the social role of sculpting art, as well as the
designs of monumental implementations and works which became part of
architecture that was the product of the period order, aesthetics and
realistic canon. Designs, sketches, studies for monuments, memorials and
relief decorations also constitute part of this collection; the
traditional medal design of several Slovak authors is also represented.
From
1990 until today, the interest has been focused on complementing the
plastic art collection by alternative and experimental forms of
sculpting art, such as the objects and environment of the authors based
in the 1960s (Mária Bartuszová, Jaroslav Kočiš, Ivan Štepán, Juraj
Meliš, Jozef Jankovič, Milan Dobeš, Juraj Bartusz, Stano Filko, etc.).
Thus, the gaps in the history of this type of art and Slovak fine art in
general are filled, considering that before 1990, similar works were
not purchased or they appear in the collection randomly, as separate
signals of the development of plastic art in Slovakia.
A
focused interest in works that exceeded the "classical" boundaries of
plastic art only began to appear after the social changes. This enabled
the re-evaluation of and changes in the collection, as well as further
replenishing of the collection with missing works from the 1990s until
today (Dezider Tóth, Jana Želibská, Peter Meluzin, Peter Rónai, Ilona
Németh, Viktor Oravec, Milan Pagáč, Karol Pichler, Roman Ondák, Sára
Pernecká, Marko Blažo, Anetta Mona Chisa and Lucia Tkáčová, Martin
Piaček).
The works of the founding figures and significant
works of Czech plastic art of the first half of the 20th century (Jozef
Mařatka, Josef Václav Myslbek, Ladislav Šaloun, Jan Štursa, Otto
Gutfreund, Otakar Španiel and others) also constitute part of this
collection. It also contains the works of Czech sculptors of the second
half of the 20th century (Eva Kmentová, Vladimír Preclík, Olbram Zoubek,
Václav Cigler). European and non-European works, especially from the
second half of the 20th century, which have been added to the collection
through occasional and random purchases or donations from exhibitions
implemented on the grounds of the gallery, are also marginally
represented.