DID YOU KNOW?
The installation Passage by Matej Krén consists of almost 15,000 books?
A Century and a half. Painting and sculpture 1800-1950
The Bratislava
City Gallery houses the collection containing over 34,000 works. Since its
establishment in 1959, when it was separated from the Bratislava City Museum, the
Gallery has enriched its collection through donated and purchased acquisitions
on a regular basis. The visitors can see crucial works from the collection in permanent
exhibitions. In 2008 the Gallery opened three exhibitions at the Palffy Palace,
mapping the development of fine art from the nineteenth century up to the
present day. In a slightly modified way it is also presented in the exhibition
“One and a half century. Painting and sculpture from the period of
1800 – 1950 in the Bratislava City Gallery´s collections”. Our aim is to
provide a comprehensive overview of crucial styles and subjects in the art of the period under the focus
through the works of art by Central European visual artists, many of whom
considerably influenced the local art scene.
The earliest
collection items are represented by portraits, be it official portraits in the
manner of classicism or portraits commissioned by burghers during the Biedermeier
period. Among the most captivating ones are the portraits of little children,
which were especially popular with the public. Local art production is
represented by several views of Bratislava that still maintained a status of the
coronation town in the first half of the nineteenth century. But the current
trends in visual culture were set by a nearby Vienna; the Academy of Fine Arts in
Vienna was attended by many artists whose works can be seen in the present
exhibition. The first art selling exhibition in Bratislava was held only in 1883
to support the erection of a monument in the honour of Johann N. Hummel. Two
years later, Bratislava Art Association was established. In the area of
painting and sculpture, the last third of the century is characterised by a
plurality of styles; in portraiture, for instance, the tendencies of realism
and elements of naturalism prevailed. The gap between exponents of academic art
and proponents of unofficial art movements was getting wider.
Slovak fine art
in the first half of the twentieth century was formed in the conditions of
permanent changes affecting life of each individual including the artists. World
events of unprecedented intensity, social catastrophes, the break-up of states,
two world wars, revolutions, all these events had a tremendous impact on
people´s life. And it was in this turbulent period that the autonomous and
authentic art emerged that laid the foundations for Slovak modern art.
Other exhibitions/actions
