JURAJ COLLINÁSY(1907 - 1963)

Juraj Collinásy, a painter from Košice, belongs together with Július Jakoby to the followers of the Košice Moderna of the 20ies of the past century. The Bratislava City Gallery in cooperation with the Eastern Slovakian Gallery in Košice prepared an exhibition by the occasion of the 100 anniversary of the artist’s birth. In the choice of more than 50 artworks from the collections of the Eastern Slovakian Gallery, a few private owners and the author’s family it follows the painter’s creation from the year 1940 up to the year 1963 when he after a serious illness died early at the age of 56. The basics of the art education Collinásy gained in the years 1924-1927 at the private graphics and drawing school of Eugen Krón in Košice and in the years 1927-1929 during his army presence service in Prague he privately visited the atelier of the important Czech painter Vincenc Beneš. Portraits, figural compositions, still-lives and landscapes, often small in size, offer the author space for expressing almost hedonistic colouristic sensuality. To the most remarkable in Collinásy’s creation peaking in the years 1948-1949, belong the motifs of interiors with figural composition of a female model in which the author applies a special sense for expressional ability of the colour with decorative finish.
Juraj Collinásy as one of the leading artists of the eastern Slovakian region of the 20th century, transcends with his creation the local frame and places himself amongst the parade of important representatives of modern Slovak art.
Mgr. Helena Němcová, curator of the exhibition