Ongoing exhibitions at the Slovak National Gallery: Amazing Art History with Professor Hamster; Antimuseum of J.K.; Art in the Public Space - Fusion of art and architecture; Biblioman - Bibliophile books and book design from the collection of Igor Gazdík; Sacred Art; Design Unpacked; The Kornel and Naďa Földvári Library; The Modern; From Collector to Art Patron.

Antimuseum of J.K.

Curator: Alexandra Kusá

Thanks to a comprehensive monographic exposition of Július Koller you will get to know the personality and work of one of our most famous conceptual artists, whose name has been resounding abroad as well.
Július Koller - More
Július Koller - The Sea

The exposition has come into being by moving the private collection of Koller′s works from the Antimuseum of J.K. residing on Zámočnícka Street in Bratislava to the premises of the SNG. We completed the installation by author′s works from our Fund.

The base of the very first solo exposition dedicated to Július Koller was a private collection which came into being in 1998, i.e. in the times when the qualities of this at that time still living author were apparent only to experts. In 2020, the collection transformed into the Antimuseum of J.K. on Zámočnícka Street. Its main part was made up by antipictures, in which Koller was coming into terms with the conceptual art and the climate of the times.

Full description and more information: SNG.sk.

Biblioman

Bibliophile books and book design from the collection of Igor Gazdík

Biblioman - Krásna kniha a dizajn knihy zo zbierky Igora Gazdíka

Curator: Viera Kleinová

He lived and breathed books. The bibliophilia were both his unplanned escape from contemporary art and his lifelong delight as a collector. The book collection of Igor Gazdík (1943 – 2006), theoretician and art historian, librarian and bibliophile, was acquired by the SNG shortly following his death with the objective of preserving this extensive, specialised collection in its entirety.a dýchal.

Comprising several thousand items, the collection was in fact a residential library compiled over many years. It contained art historical publications, books from other humanities, fiction, poetry, and Slovak, Czech, and foreign language titles. But most especially it contained the "little books" (as Igor Gazdík affectionately named them), through which he carefully, thoroughly, and patiently composed his history of the bibliophile books.

Biblioman - Krásna kniha a dizajn knihy zo zbierky Igora Gazdíka

Full description and more information: SNG.sk.

Design Unpacked

Curators: Jana Švantnerová, Viera Kleinová

Design, applied arts and artistic craft from the SNG Collections offer an adventure journey across centuries of everyday life and throughout big and small history as well.

You will set off to it accompanied by duos or trios of exhibited artefacts that communicate together in both harmony and tension and which were chosen based on their mutual visual and semantic sparkling. You will see both masterpieces and objects from the back shelves of our depository, progressive works, but even the problematic and controversial ones. You will meet the works of Slovak designers and artists of the 20th and the 21st century, and also arts and crafts works of old masters not only from the territory of Slovakia.


Matthias Gelb - Guild Cup of Pressburg Stonemason and Mason Masters

We let the exhibited works impress you in diverse contexts – as part of visual culture, as players in economic and social practise, as heroes in significant history events and everyday life happenings, too. Various and noteworthy probes to our collections will enable you to get to know the rich digital content directly in the exposition much deeper.

Full description and more information: SNG.sk.

European Painting of the Early Modern Period

Kurátori: Zuzana Ludiková

This selection of European paintings of the 16th – 18th centuries of the Slovak National Gallery follows the transformation of private spaces under the influence of the social, religious and economic changes of the time. 

The curatorial selection combines knowledge from the latest art history findings with research into the lifestyle, and housing and material culture in Western European households. The exhibited genre paintings, portraits, landscapes, and still lifes document not only the taste of the period, but map a path full of bold experiments leading up to the threshold of Modernism.

You will get to know the first-class works of Italian, Netherlandish, Dutch and other masters such as Hans von Aachen, Cecco del Caravaggio, Joachim Beuckelaer, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, Gottfried Kneller, and through them you will be transported to Venice, Milan, Amsterdam, and Antwerp, the most important art centers of those times. 


Maerten Fransz. van der Hulst - Coastal Landscape with Ruin

Around the middle of the 16th century, the first works of unusual importance were created; they exclusively featured secular themes where artists turned functional sacred objects into an earthly world of experiences. Collectors, patrons, and commissioners of art competed with each other in the decoration of interiors, which reflected their social status. The historical, and at first glance realistic paintings that decorated them, almost always had a symbolic meaning.

Full description and more information: SNG.sk.

The Kornel and Naďa Földvári Library

Curator: Alexandra Kusá

The Library presents an extensive collection of books owned by the writer, literary critic and satirist Kornel Földvári and his wife, Naďa. The project's initiator was the writer and director Peter Krištúfek, who was determined to preserve Kornel's extensive book collection and capture his inspiring personality and passion for collecting. Make yourself comfortable and choose from over 11 000 books that you can browse in a pleasant environment designed for studying, relaxation and cultural and social events.

At the same time, this space is a tribute to people who have inconspicuously shaped our intellectual space throughout their lives. Kornel's fondness for the so-called pulp fiction - adventure novels, Westerns and detective stories, was not only about his bold literary taste. For him, the moment of initiation was crucial, the moment that transports you to the world of literature and then opens the door to grand themes and stories. "Boys and girls, read now! It's a genuine thrill, something new that will provide you with profound experiences. If you miss out on those books now, only in adulthood will you understand the importance of reading. However, literature will never give you the same thing that it could give you back then."

Full description and more information: SNG.sk.

The Modern

Curator: Katarína Bajcurová

The Modern tells the story of visual art in Slovakia in the first half of the 20th century. Our selection of works for it centred on the most important developments in domestic art between 1890/1900 and 1948.

You’ll discover how art was responding to the era’s new civilizational challenges and social transformations, how artists were reacting to the world they lived in, and how all this found its way into their works, and changed the visuality and expression of visual art. In experiencing this exposition of iconic works, drawn mostly from SNG collections, you can take in the comprehensive whole or focus on individual pieces. It includes paintings, sculptures, prints, and photographs, alongside films and installations. Among its features is “non-permanent” exposition: changing exhibits presented every year – the current theme is (In)visible? Women of the Modern. 

Mikuláš Galanda - Krajina so stoličkou
Mikuláš Galanda - Landscape with a Chair

Full description and more information: SNG.sk.

Art in the Public Space

Fusion of art and architecture


Jozef Sušienka - Park Sculptures

Curator: Alexandra Kusá

Have you ever wondered if art can be a natural part of a building‘s interior, and not just a preserve of the perfect world of the exhibition hall?

In this unconventional retrospective project, we are returning to the traditional practice of placing works of art within significant and prominent buildings. A practice once primarily designed to impress conveys a more educational aspect when, in our interpretation, set against the background of the gallery’s architecture.

We have enhanced exploration of the building by placing sculptures and works of applied art from the SNG collections throughout various spaces of the gallery. Simply take a look, be surprised, be amazed, and see for yourself that art and architecture are compatible. 


Juraj Bartusz - Julius Jakoby

We ask what artworks in public spaces actually mean, and explore how the gallery can quietly suggest to visitors that the symbiosis of artwork and public space belongs to us, and is what we should adopt as a norm. 

Full description and more information: SNG.sk.

From Collector to Art Patron

Exposition of Works Donated from the Linea Collection

Curator: Alexandra Homoľová

Dr Ivan Zubaľ started building this collection – works by the old masters, and from Slovakia’s 19th century and modern and contemporary art – in the 1970s.

His sons, who “caught” their father’s love for collecting, helped shape its form and character. Thus the collection increasingly stood out in scope and quality from prevailing models of motivation, principles, and intention among private collectors. In the late 1990s the collection came out of the privacy of its owners’ home, becoming known to the public at Galéria Linea and later at Galéria Horský park. It grew considerably in visibility and appreciation thanks to loans of some of its works to eminent institutions.

In 2018, some 150 pieces from this collection were donated to the SNG - sculptures, paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, objects, and installations – a representative selection of the Zubaľ family’s two generations of collecting, with an acquisition value of around 3.5 million euros. The exposition is showing the greater part of the generous gift, a gesture unprecedented in the Gallery’s seventy-year existence.

Full description and more information: SNG.sk.

Amazing Art History with Professor Hamster

Curators: Ondřej Horák, Dávid Kalika

Whether you are a child or an adult, a layman or an expert - your age or knowledge does not matter! It is your desire to discover the story of art that truly counts! In a short 15-minute interactive projection, Professor Hamster will playfully guide you through the history of art. You can expand your newly acquired knowledge through a series of short, animated videos dedicated to the lives and work of influential Slovak and international artists of the 20th century and today. 

Our videos focus on art history's era that people usually perceive as intellectually challenging. The life story of the painter Frida Kahlo alternates with Pablo Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon and the creators' effort to explain the working principles of Cubism. You will also find out why Marcel Duchamp never really cared that the original of his urinal - artwork called Fountain - was lost, or where Andy Warhol first noticed a can of soup. You will also learn more about Slovak artists Július Koller and Roman Ondak, who have established themselves internationally. All the videos can be found at skrecok.sng.sk.

Full description and more information: SNG.sk.

Sacred Art

Curator: Dušan Buran, Katarína Kolbiarz Chmelinová

Art in the past had a variety of functions, essentially different from those it has today. One of the most important was its cultic or religious function, which predominated in the evolving visual culture throughout entire centuries. Thanks to this collection display, you will discover the most precious sacred paintings and sculptures from the Gothic and Baroque eras in the Slovak National Gallery’s collections, complemented with icons and paintings from European art of the 16th to the 19th century.

Albert Bouts - Christ with the Crown of Thorns (Tortured Christ)

The collection display will show you a number of themes and aspects associated with religious art, such as Passions, the Holy Family and Folk Piety as well as Original & Copy, and you will stop by a group of the oldest wooden sculptures in Slovakia. Introducing the entire collection, there are two monumental altar screens by Anton Schmidt from Kremnica. They exemplify the context in which images were most often used in Christian liturgy: as part of the altar wholes. A statue group by the contemporary sculptor Ján Zelinka brings the exposition to a conclusion, highlighting a further two important themes of Christian art – Pietà and Iconoclasm.

Full description and more information: SNG.sk.