I'm proud to have seen an exhibition of some leading Slovak artists from 1960-2000. The works by them have shaped the happening of the Slovak Art Scene to this day, including myself. I'm talking about exhibition - Independent Scene. A Segment of Slovak Visual Art 1960-2000 in the Embassy of Slovak Republic in London. I'd introduced this show to you prior to the private view, in this post. If you are interested in the Slovak Art and European Art in general, and this crucial creative period of 1960-1989, it's a must see for you!

The exhibition is curated by Zuzana Bartošová, research worker at the Institute of Art History, Slovak Academy of Sciences. Henry Meyric Hughes, Honorary President of International Association of Art Critics (AICA) Paris, opened the event with this speech. The works presented in the exhibition come from the First Slovak Investment Group’s collection (Bratislava, Slovakia).

Here is an extract of the speech by Mr. Hughes. I've learnt so much by listening to it over and over again:

“What you see here in this space is the crème de la crèmeand very carefully chosen work by Zuzana Bartosova, a step ahead of the works perhaps in the Slovak National Gallery Collection.”

“ Jankovič piece, The Movable Handsare moving, waving in unison. That in a sense sets the scene to the way that artists have responded, artists who are outside the official system, right up to 1989. They maintained their own independence and contacts with artist in surrounding countries, and responded to ideas in the outside world. Most of those artists were almost working in isolation. But, almost all of these works here are kind of the key works of the individual artists concerned. In sense, there was a double divorce, if you were living in Bratislava. There was a divorce from centralized part, artistic patronage provided by Prague (which was a dominant partner in this federated republic) and of course there was a divorce from the west. The isolation in Bratislava really was the fertile element, artists were left to their own devices, maybe they were followed a bit by the security police, but on the whole they could do what they wanted, provided they didn’t put their heads up above the parapet. I think, this is the essential message you are getting from this exhibition. All those artists and their work up to 1989 have formed the basis of the Slovak Art.”

Participating artists:

Milan Adamčiak (*1946), Peter Bartoš (*1938), Juraj Bartusz (*1933), Mária Bartuszová (1936 – 1996), Pavol Binder (1935 – 2009), Milan Bočkay (*1946),Klára Bočkayová (*1948), Ivan Csudai (*1959), Ladislav Čarný (*1949), Marián Čunderlík (1926 – 1983), Milan Dobeš (*1929), Ľubomír Ďurček (*1948), Rudolf Fila (*1932), Stanislav Filko (*1937), Daniel Fischer (*1950), Vladimír Havrilla(*1943), Jozef Jankovič (*1937) Igor Kalný (1957 – 1987), Michal Kern (1938 – 1994), Alojz Klimo (1922 – 2000), Martin Knut (*1964), Július Koller (1939 – 2007), Vladimír Kordoš (*1945), Patrik Kovačovský (*1970), Juraj Meliš(*1942), Igor Peter Meluzin (*1947), Marián Meško (*1945), Anastázia Miertušová (1927 – 2002), Igor Minárik (*1948), Alex Mlynárčik (*1934), Marián Mudroch (*1945), Ilona Németh (*1963), Milan Paštéka (1931 – 1998), Karol Pichler (*1957), Vladimír Popovič (*1939), Rudolf Sikora (*1946), Ivan Štěpán (1937 – 1986), Laco Teren (*1960), Dezider Tóth (*1947), Rudolf Uher (1913 – 1987), Miloš Urbásek (1932 – 1988), Jana Želibská (*1941)

You can see my video invitation and a small tour around the space of The Embassy Of Slovak Republic, where the show is held:

And finally a wide selection of photos from the exhibition. Thanks for reading my post. Contact me, if you have any questions.