Elvíra Antalová — Agricultural Fields I

The Nitra Gallery collection contains 24 pieces by Elvíra Antalová (born Knotková), mostly from the 1960 and 1970s (with one exception – Paučina Lehota from 1956). Despite the fact the oil painting Agricultural Fields I is from the 1970s and it is not a part of the artist’s early creative period, the applied painting style evokes a transition between specific – realistic landscape depiction, typical for the 1950s and abstract portrayal of nature, typical for her later periods. 

The elongated format of the canvas depicts a view of a valley with rural houses, enriched with a mountain range and also yellow fields located in the foreground. The image consists of various coloured areas, with the smaller ones capturing the architecture of rural houses with hints of windows and the larger ones painted in brown, green, yellow (ochre) representing mountains and fields. It also features her typical black contours outlining the individual areas, one of the signature characteristics of the artist’s painting language. 

The painting Agricultural Fields I is most likely a part of a series which could also contain an image of an identical title, year of creation, technique and format titled Agricultural Fields III. It is a part of the Ernest Zmeták Gallery of Arts collection in Nové Zámky. Despite the title and year of creation, which places it into the upcoming normalisation period, it is not a typical period piece, but it rather shows the artist’s attempt at gradual abstraction, simplification and stylisation of reality. 

Antalová’s work predominantly features motifs of nature and landscapes. In the 1960s, together with her husband Eduard Antal and other friends and painters, like Zuzana Rusková-Bellušová, Ján Švec, Marián Velba and others from the Group 66, they would go on these annual summer creative trips to various corners of Slovakia. She would base her work on their actual experiences, but gradually translate it into shapes and forms. 

Besides nature and landscapes, including repeated solitaire trees motifs (Pink Tree, Grey Trees, Trees and Sun), the artist also worked on other genres – portraits (mostly portraits of her daughters, Zuzana and Jana), still lifes with fruit and flowers, figural compositions featuring Slovak National Uprising and war themes (e.g. the Partisans series), mimes and pantomimes. She would usually lean toward the techniques of oil, tempera, gouache and aquarelle. An important element of her paintings was a specific colourfulness. Elvira was not just a painter, but also a textile artist. She made hand-woven tapestries which she started to focus on when she became the head of the textile department at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava. Many of them were used as interior decorations of various architectural landmarks.