The SNG's Collection of Photomedia was not complete in the
traditional sense until very recently. It originated through occasional
acquisitions by the Department of Applied Art from 1961. Traditionally,
the collection lacked its own curator for a long time. Usually the head
of the Department of Applied Art was in charge of its acquisitions.
The
situation began to change in the second half of the 1980s. The
collection's systematic development began after the first independent
curator, Václav Macek (1990) took over. In a relatively short period of
time it was significantly enlarged; today it contains approximately 4,
879 photomedia works.
Because of various circumstances, the
photography collection is limited to works from the Slovak territory and
from Slovak authors living abroad (François Kollar is the most famous
example). It also contains photographs of two significant Czech authors,
Markéta Luskačová and Jindřich Štreit that originated in Slovakia.
However,
thanks to extensive purchases in the late 1980s and 1990s and later
acquisitions (predominantly through donations) the collection contains
works representing all of the stages of development of this kind of art
in Slovakia. The collections of the works of the pioneers of photography
from the 19th century (Eduard Kozič, Karol Divald) are valuable and the
works of the representatives of the Slovak photographic Modernism
(Irena Blühová, Sergej Protopopov, Karol Aufricht, Štefan Tamáš, Miloš
Dohnány, Viliam Malík and also Karol Plicka) have raised significant
interest in recent decades.
The authors of the golden age of
Slovak photography, the 1960s, such as Karol Kállay, Ladislav Bielik,
Tibor Honty, Ladislav Borodáč, Anton Štubňa and Pavel Hudec-Ahasver are
also significantly represented, particularly Martin Martinček, whose
generous donation in 2002 substantially enriched this collection.
In
connection with the exhibition entitled Lost Time? in 2007, the
collection of photography was significantly enriched by the works of the
representatives of the Slovak documentary genre of the 1970s and 1980s
(Juraj Bartoš, Stano Pekár Anton Podstraský, Miro Pokorný, Jozef Ondzik
and others). The overall picture is also complemented by other important
photographers of this period such as Tibor Huszár, Ľubo Stacho and
Jozef Sedlák.
Smaller sets of photographs of the protagonists
of the Slovak new wave of the 1980s (Tono Stano, Miro Švolík, Peter
Župník, Rudo Prekop) can also be found, while the younger authors are,
for now, represented only marginally (Robo Kočan, Martin Kollár, Boris
Németh, Lucia Nimcová).
The latest significant exhibition
which, besides its primary objective to bring new knowledge about the
various stages of history of Slovak photography, also allowed the
acquisition of valuable artworks for the collection, was the exhibition
about the photography of the 1950s, Captivated by Beauty. Originally a
modest collection of works from this period by Ladislav Csáder was
significantly enhanced other works by Anton Smotlak, Josef Nový and Igor
Grossmann.
A special chapter is dedicated to the works of
those who used photography or photographic techniques in various ways.
Coincidentally, their works are divided between the Collection of Photo
Media and the Collection of Other Media. Certain works by Rudolf Fila,
Július Koller, Vladimír Kordoš and Dezider Tóth were allocated to the
Collection of Photo Media.
