There are no translations availableZuzka Medved'ova jedna z prvých Akademických Sloveniek
Akademicka maliarka Zuzka Medved'ova patrila k...3
>
Karol Miloslav Lehotsky
The Creative Work of Karol Miloslav Lehotský
by Vladimír Valentík
The creative work of Karol Miloslav Lehotský consists of his...3
>
Martin Jonas (1924-1996)
Martin Jonas (1924-1996) is probably the most significant and greatest artist of the Kovacica naive art, who had, thanks to his imagination,...3
>
Galéria Zuzky Medveďovej
There are no translations available
Galéria Zuzky Medveďovej
V priebehu činnosti Galérie Zuzky Medveďovej v svojich...3
>
Zuzana Chalupova (1925-2001)
Zuzana Chalupova (1925-2001) The artistic opus of Zuzana Chalupova (1925-2001) consists most often of the figural compositions of genre...3
>
Kovacica's past and the genesis of the naive art
Kovacica's past and the genesis of the naive art During the migration of a part of the Slovak population to the "lower...3
Kovacica's past and the genesis of the naive art
Kovacica's past and the genesis of the naive art
During the migration of a part of the Slovak population to the "lower countries" in 18th and 19th centuries - following the defeat of the Turks in these areas - the region of Banat, being the farthest area of today's Vojvodina, was also colonised . The first immigrants came to the most populated Slovak settlement in Yugoslavia's Banat, Kovacica, from various places from Pest, Nitra and especially Novohrad districts (parishes). They didn't, however, come directly but mostly via Slovakia's Bardaii and Ecka. 15th May, 1802 is taken as the historic date for Kovacica, as it was then that priest Jan Basilides, along with village mayor Duro Sokol, curator Jan Selsky and the village representatives requested from their ruler, Ferdinand I, to grant them the concession for the wasteland Kovacica at the military border. They got the promise immediately which was reconfirmed in writing by an imperial decree of 12th January, 1803.2 Already on 1st July, 1802, the first Kovacica's inhabitant was born and that was Maria Zolnaj, the daughter of Jan and Alzbeta, born Sukupova. Soon after came the first Kovacica's boy - Jan Nosal, the son of Jan and Alzbeta, born Mensik. Thus the new life began to emerge in Kovacica, to which the Slovaks came in their quest for better life, that was possible in the area of a military border. Here they were exempt from taxation for ten years and were given sufficient land to cultivate - the total of more than 3,424 acres of arable land, more than 1,436 acres of meadows, more than 77 acres of gardens and 172 acres of vineyards. The settlers who arrived later were not given any land, but the one sufficient for a house to build on. The Kovacicans, as border guards, were divided into active ones, that is,those fit for military service, and those who were not. Men aged 18 to 50 were considered to be fit for military service, while those from 50 to 60 years of age were considered only for domestic service. They had military training on Sundays and during holidays, while during winter months, since 1812, they had 4 days of training every month, plus spring and autumn military trainings. It was the military command that made the decisions on all the issues, which had both positive and negative consequences. The family life was organized in the form of large family cooperatives and the size of the given land depended on the number of military fit men. The military authorities controlled the total discipline in the settlement and they also dealt with the education of children. In 1802 the Kovacicans built a new school and immediately after that started with a church, that was later replaced by a newer one, consecrated on 19th October, 1828. The middle of 19th century was marked by the appearance of the first craftsmen and opening of the first trading shops. The settlement itself, as well as the life in it, kept developing despite the cholera raging (1836,1846). The military boundary was abolished in 1872.In the year 1808, therefore immediately after its founding, Kovacica had the population of some 1,000 Slovaks. In 1836 the number of inhabitants of Kovacica was 2,160 and at the turn of the centuries as much as 4,541. Kovacica kept growing in the course of 20th century, along with the number of its inhabitants. In 1948 it numbered 6,359, while the last census in 1991 showed that there are as many as 7,425 Kovacicans.
Today, Kovacica is a small town with developed infrastructure and economy, as well as developed theatre, music, folklore and especially fine arts. It is precisely its painting that it can be thankful for the developing tourism and good reputation both inland and abroad. Yet, despite it all, Kovacica has kept its dominant agricultural character, regardless of a high number of graduated students coming from the village - in 1990, there were 294 of them.6 In 19th century there were only 4 students in Kovacica and those were sons of Kovacica's priests and teachers. In 20th century, until 1918, seven more Kovacicans graduated, most of them sons of teachers, but one of them also a mason's son. The situation has not essentially changed during the two world wars, when eight more Kovacicans finished their studies. After WWII, the situation started to improve leading to 27 more graduated students in the period 1946-1960. During the next period, which coincides with the affirmation of Kovacica's painters throughout the world, i.e., 1961-1975, the number of Kovacica's students tripled compared to the preceding period - there were 75 students. Finally, during the latest period the number of students rose to the level of 173.
Martin Paluska Invitation for wedding
It is an interesting fact that the naive art of Kovacica started developing among the agricultural population and craftsmen precisely at the time of the increased interest for academic studies, while it gained its world reputation in the same period (1961-1975) when the number of students almost tripled. The drawn parallel between the fine arts creativity of Kovacica's farmers and higher education of Kovacica's students has a deeper social foundation. In the post-war period, especially during the 60's and the 70's, the traditional way of life, both in Kovacica and other towns in Vojvodina, begins to change and modernize drastically. Kovacica started its architectural development as well.
Jan Sokol Circle of life
Already during the 50's the "Municipal Hall" was built (in 1952, marking the 150th anniversary of the town's foundation), as well as a large storehouse for wheat near railway station, and the Fire Station. In the next decade a new primary school building was made (1962), followed by an anti-tuberculosis clinic, a day-care clinic, a high school, a hotel and a department store. 11 km of the village roads were paved, while 17 km of pavements were covered by concrete.
Vladimir Bobos Slovak bride
In 1975 Kovacica gets its water supply system in the total length of 55 km.9 The horse carts were replaced by tractors and combines, while the new electrical appliances (fridges, cooking stoves, television sets,...) found their way to Kovacica's households. Quickly and apparently imperceptibly Kovacica changed its looks, and its inhabitants followed suit. The traditional works in the field gained a different character and something changed in the soul of the hardworking Kovacicans and their sensibility. Gradually they started losing their folklore and ethnographic particularities of their daily lives... And maybe it is precisely in this fact that one should look for the answer to the question why the Kovacica naive art has this specific rural, folklore character.
michal bires
The period of the organized activities of the Kovacica painters coincides with the times of the first signs and the beginnings of the changes in the traditional life of Kovacica, which, after 150 years, started altering and gaining new character relatively rapidly. This is, therefore, the time of the creation of the first village gallery in Yugoslavia - the gallery of peasant painters. Nonetheless, the first painters in Kovacica started painting for their own pleasure and mostly did copies of the exotic sceneries from picture postcards and photographs (post stamps, gondolas, lions,...) unburdened by the
Martin Jonas Me village
knowledge of fine arts and craft. They approached the canvas with love and with "pure heart", as somebody said once. Later they moved away from copying and started painting the daily life and work in the village. The hard lives of the farmers and their national customs started finding the way from the reality into the imagination and further onto canvases. To be more precise, according to numerous sources, it all began in Kovacica at the end of the 30's. More concretely in 1939 when while playing chess, locksmith Martin Paluska and farmer Jan Sokol let each other on a secret that they loved to paint, after which they started to paint together from time to time. Later, during the war, they were joined by Mihal Bires, and after the war they met yet another
jan knazovic
arts lover - cooperative's clerk Vladimir Bobos, who introduced them into the secrets of painting craftsmanship. In 1950, Martin Paluska and Jan Sokol participated for the first time in an exhibition with one canvas each and that was at the painting exhibition of the amateurs of Vojvodina in Novi Sad and Subotica.10 Soon after this experience, within the cultural and educational centre "Pokrok" (progress, advancement) they founded, together with Vladimir Bobos as the President, a fine arts and painting section. This section was immediately joined by Martin Jonas and Jan Knazovic, later the two best painters of the Kovacica naive art. In 1952, twelve Kovacica painters made a joint exhibition for the first time while marking the 150th anniversary of Kovacica's founding.11
Pavel Hrk autoportrait
Since then this exhibition has been organized annually and has become a tradition. Its name is Kovacica'c October and it takes place, along with the Vernissage, during the first weekend in October. In order to overcome the initial phase of copying and feel the need for their own and original artistic expression, the painters of Kovacica were helped a great deal by the academic painter from the town of Pancevo, Stojan Trumic, who started paying regular visits to Kovacica. On those occasions he introduced the painters to the values of the Slovak folk art and their original way of painting. Namely, during Kovacica's past there had been no painters or artists whose example would inspire others to creativity. With the exception of Serbian painter Konstantin Danil, who did the altar painting for Kovacica's evangelist a.a. (Augsburg's Acknowledgment) church in 1845, practically no other painter appeared here at all. This means that the naive art of Kovacica and the interest for the fine arts here generally stemmed directly from the folk artistic creation and the need of the Kovacicans to decorate their own homes, furniture, clothes and tools. It is from folk art that the need of Kovacica's peasants and artisans for painting and artistic expressed directly arose.
Jan Strakusek
When Kovacica, however, became the town of fine art, this inspired several young and talented Kovacicans to study at art academies. In other words, it is a little known fact that it was from Kovacica - the metropolis of naive art - that even four academic artists came, none of whom today creates in his/her native town or the town of their parents: Tihomir Bires lives in Rome where he pursued his studies; Martin Kizur moved in Australia in 1991; Ingrid Cicka, whose father is a Kovacican, lives in Greece, while Vanesa Hardy works in Slovakia and Austria.
Jan Venarsky
The first to exhibit their paintings in Kovacica were Martin Jonas and Jan Sokol. It is taken that those were the paintings named "The Harvest in Banat" by Martin Jonas and Sokol's painting "The Trimming of a Bride"12. At the exhibitions which followed in the first half of the 50's we could see the increased presence of original creativity. The interest in painting led to the opening of the first village gallery in Yugoslavia on 15th May, 1955 - the Gallery of Folk Painters situated in the Cooperative Hall. The association of Kovacica's painters had 30 members during that period. 14 members participated at the exhibition with the total of 48 works. The vast majority of those paintings were oils on canvas. Once the painters of Kovacica managed in 1957 to become a part of the prestigious exhibition of Naive Artists of Yugoslavia, organized by the extraordinary Yugoslav connoisseur of the naive art in general, Mr. Oto Bihalji-Merin, which was held in Belgrade, Zagreb, Ljubljana and Skopje, the road to all significant Yugoslav and world exhibitions was laid. All Kovacicans started conquering the world public, especially after the exhibition "the Naive Artists of Yugoslavia," held in London in 1961. This is where nine of them had their works shown. After that followed Vienna, Budapest, Paris, Moscow, Rome, Leningrad, Sao Paolo, etc.
Alzbeta Cizikova
It was through Kovacica's painters that the name of their town became well known on all the continents, thus they started hosting numerous high-ranking guests at home: Francois Mitterand, Gerald Ford, the Spanish king Juan Carlos, music artist Mstislav Rostropovich, Rolling Stones band, football player Pele, famous Apollo crew, actors Allain Delon, Franco Nero, Ursula Andres, et al. Kovacica became a unique artistic phenomenon to such an extent that it had an influence at the appearance of naive painters in the surrounding towns, such as Uzdin, inhabited mostly by the Romanians, in which women founded their own painting group in 1961, but also in the nearby Slovak town of Padina, which today also has distinguished naive painters. Many of them are members of the Kovacica Naive Art Gallery. This gallery enrolled its first members from Padina in 1971 (Michal Povolny and Jan Husarik).
Katarina Karlecik
For the activity of Kovacica's naive painters - along with the very beginnings of the organized presentations - the year of 1958 was of special significance, since it was then that the Culture Hall started functioning and took them under its roof. This is where they keep being active today as well. The next important year was 1989 when a new, adapted building of the Kovacica Naive Art Gallery was opened and it has been here that the Kovacica painters present their works to all the naive art lovers, either in the form of individual artistic presentations or at joint exhibitions, especially during the Kovacica Naive Art Salon, the Kovacica October. In 1989, the new seat of Kovacica's painters was opened with the exhibition called "The Naive and Folk Art of the Non-Aligned Countries". Kovacica then hosted the artists from Indonesia, Cyprus, Columbia, Cuba, Uruguay, Tunisia and Venezuela. Once again, Kovacica reconfirmed its position as the metropolis of naive art.
Zuzana Chalupuva
The annual presentation of the Kovacica naive artistic opus has been, for almost half a century, held at the Kovacica October. Among the 60 painters who have exhibited their works at this event, there have been those who played, within the so-called Kovacica School of Naive Art, but a side role, but many of them have endured. From the 50's we should recall the founding generation of painters: Martin Paluska (1913-1978), Jan Sokol (1909-1982), Michal Bires (1912-1981), Vladimir Bobos (1906-1978), Martin Jonas (1924- 1996), Jan Knazovic (1925-1985), and later Pavel Hrk (1922-1996), Jan Strakiisek (1926), Jan Veiiarsky (1928-1985), and the first Kovacica female painter who endured in her creativeness until present days - Alzbeta Cizikova (1936). Since 1957, Katarina Karlecikova (1937) has also exhibited her canvases during the Kovacica October. In 1960, two other important painters started exhibiting their works: Ondrej Veiiarsky (1930) and Jan Garaj (1930). Since 1964, also at the Kovacica October, we can see the works of the world famous Zuzana Chalupova (1925-2001), followed by, to name but a few, Eva Husarikova (1942) and the first painters from Padina Jan Husarik (1942) and Michal Povolny (1935). Immediately after, come Ondrej Pilch (1938-1992) and the painters who today give the basic character to the contemporary naive creativity in Kovacica and Padina: Pavel Hajko (1952), Jan Baciir (1937), Martin Markov (1954), Zuzana Veresky (1955), Jan Glozik (1957) and others. The members of the Naive Art Gallery have become - besides the painters from Padina - some painters from other areas, outside the immediate surroundings of Kovacica: Ferenc Pataki from Zrenjanin, Desa Petrov-Morar from Pancevo, Rozalija Markov from the village of Aradac and Darko Terzic from Opovo.The naive painters of Kovacica have done tens of thousands of paintings. The largest collection of the Kovacica naive art is, naturally, to be found in the possession of the Culture Hall "3rd October" and the Kovacica Naive Art Gallery. Thousands of paintings are to be found all over Yugoslavia and perhaps an even higher number around the world. This phenomenon, characteristic especially of 20th century, has put Kovacica among the largest naive art centres not only in Yugoslavia, but also worldwide. Rural and folkloristic in its beginnings, the artistic expression of the members of the "Kovacica Naive Art School" is, in fact, a lay artistic creation of unqualified artists. Their pure, sincere and authentic artistic articulation, conditioned by their rural environment and the Slovak folk tradition, is nevertheless changing its face after its half-a-century existence. Since Paluska's and Sokol's attempts until present days, in other words until Jan Glozik, Pavel Hajko, Martin Markov, Zuzana Veresky, Pavel Cicka and other painters of the younger generation, this art has changed its naive appearance. From flatly represented space without toning of colours and a naive composition of picture with immobile figures, the contemporary Kovacica painters have gone a step further. Compared to the fine art tradition of their surroundings - although artistically not academic - they intuitively feel the space they show better and they are familiar with the effects of the airy and linear perspective, while many of them can in their canvases create the illusion of three dimensions through the usage of tonal values. This comes from the fact that the contemporary painters - although the older generation knows only the original naive expression (Jan Garaj and Katarina Kozikova) - have grown and matured in more urban living conditions with a wider social communication and a better basis through art schooling as the part of primary and secondary schools curricula. This gradual transformation, which continues through present days, will be more visible and comprehensible after a certain time distance.
Michal Povolny
The Kovacica artistic phenomenon is also witnessed, alongside the paintings themselves, exhibitions' catalogues and numerous newspaper articles in our country, in Slovakia and throughout the world, by several books which attempt to explain this trend globally. The first book on the Kovacica naive art was published in 1962 in Serbian. Journalist Milivoje Mihailovic wrote the book Peasant Painters of Kovacica, published by the Culture Hall in Kovacica. It took then a lot of time before the second book appeared and that one tried to systemize this unusual occurrence. The next book saw the light as late as 1996. This was a bilingual collection of the works from the international symposium which took place in Kovacica on 13th May, 1995 - The Forty Years of the Kovacica Naive Art Gallery, published by the Culture Hall "3rd October" in Kovacica and "Kultura" from Backi Petrovac. The next book on this subject was Maliari z Kovacica (The Painters from Kovacica) and was published in Slovakia in 1998 by Neographia from Martin and Devin bank. The author of this book was Ivan Melichercik. Besides, the Kovacica painters are present in several publications dealing with the phenomenon of naive art in wider terms. The majority of the most significant Kovacica painters are to be found in the Encyclopaedia of the Naive Art of the World, comprised, with the aid of the experts from around the world, by Oto Bihalji-Merin and Nebojsa-Bata Tomasevic. The most prominent representatives of the Kovacica naive art, Martin Jonas and Zuzana Chalupova, also have large representative artistic monographies thanks, mostly, to Babka Gallery and Martin's Neographia. During the latest period, an excellent Slovak connoisseur and collector of the Kovacica naive art, Ivan Melichercik, had a small art monography on a prominent and in a way representative naive artist Jan Knazovic printed, and also on an important representative of the contemporary the Kovacica naive art, Pavel Hajko.
The book The World of the Kovacica Naive Art aims, most of all, to present a contemporary artistic scene of the naive art creativeness of certain painters from Kovacica and nearby Padina. The painters from other areas, who are in an organizational sense joined in the activities of the Kovacica Naive Art Gallery, are not presented in this book. It depicts the naive creations of the painters in these two places, after fifty years of duration of this artistic phenomenon and is oriented, most of all, towards the opus of the painters gathered around the Kovacica Naive Art Gallery. At the same time, it also shows the work of some younger, but less known painters, who may in the future become its members, bearing in mind the level of their work and their exhibiting activities.
1 SIRÁCKY, Ján: S?ahovanie Slovákov na Dolnú zem v 18. a 19. stroro?í. Bratislava : Vydavate?stvo Slovenskej akadémie vied, 1966.
2 ?APLOVI?, Ján: Dejiny slovenského evanjelického a. v. cirkevného sboru v Kova?ici. Kova?ica : Cirkevný sbor slovenskej evanjelickej cirkvi, 1928.
3 MARKO, Ján: Prvé slovenské osadnícke rodiny v Kova?ici. Nový Sad : Spolok vojvodinských slovakistov - Kova?ica : Miestne solo?enstvo, 1995.
4 SIRÁCKY, Ján: c. d., s. 180.
5 FARKAŠ, Jozef J.: Dejiny Kova?ice 1802-1946. Kova?ica : nákladom autora, 1985. Medzi nimi aj Dr. Ján Bulík, právnik a prvý predseda Matice slovenskej v Juhoslávii.
6 MARKO, Ján: Kova?i?ania vysokoškoláci. Kova?ica : Výbor pre zaznamenávanie 190. výro?ia, 1992, s. 13.
8 MARKO, Ján: c. d., s. 15-17. 9 ŠIFEL ml., Jozef: Z minulosti Kova?ice. Národný kalendár, 79, 2000, s. 209.
10 TEREK, N. - CINCAR, N.: Prvé izlo?be amatéra. Dnevnik, 31. decembar 1980, s. 21.
11 [MAJERA, Ivan]: Výstava maliarskeho krú?ku v Kova?ici hovorí o pochvalyhodnej snahe. Hlas ?udu, 9, 11. októbra 1952, ?. 80, s. 4, [nadn.] Jedna príkladná iniciatíva, [podn.] Z 12 maliarov siedmi sú sedliaci.
12 Štyridsa? rokov Galérie insitného umenia v Kova?ici. Zborník prác z medzinárodného sympózia v Kova?ici 13. mája 1995 - ?etrdeset godina Galerije naivne umetnosti u Kova?ici. Zbornik radová sa medunarodnog simpozija u Kova?ici 13. mája 1995. Kova?ica : Dom kultúry 3. októbra - Bá?sky Petrovec : Kultúra, 1996.
