Information
Curators
Ľudmila Kasaj Poláčková, Dominika Kuchynková
Participating Artists
Karol Baron, Ladislav Guderna, Matúš Maťátko
Technical Cooperation
Mladý pes
Online exposition available at
surrealizmus.nitrianskagaleria.sk
Due to the global pandemic, even our gallery has realised the online space is full of endless possibilities of presentation, valorisation and popularisation of our collection’s inventory which belongs to the Nitra Gallery’s public collection fund. The gallery’s third online exposition is based on surrealism, enchantment, playfulness and incompatibility we have to face as part of our everyday lives.
Čapek’s way of thinking and various allegories within the book have led us to paraphrasing the tale using a selection of artworks by Karol Baron and Ladislav Guderna, which are a part of Nitra Gallery’s collection.
The Doggie and Pussycat live in a surreal and authentic land created by Matúš Maťátko and the Mladý pes [Young Dog] studio, experiencing various encounters and situations with fantastic creatures – beings/Karol Baron and Ladislav Guderna’s mutants. The exposition turns day into night, the pussycat into the doggie and vice versa. They feed on floating granules/candies which respond to the touch/attention of the online viewer.
The “All About Doggie and Pussycat” project tries to activate the visitors’ mind, awaken their thought processes, sensitivity, self-reflection and various emotions. It is not just a constructive illusion of a surrealistic fairytale. It has been stitched together by artists who realise the beautiful diversity of life is not built upon simple solutions. Even though we are “little”, narrow-minded people, we enter a big world and vice versa. And sometimes, the biggest challenge in life – and in getting through it – is the use of our own brain. The online collection was created on the occasion of the 100th birthday of artist Ladislav Guderna and it is built upon associations, creative concepts and freely running streams of thoughts (of the artists and visitors).
Karol Baron (September 13, 1939, Levoča – February 29, 2004, Paris) studied at AFAD at the department of painting and tapestry under prof. Dezider Milly and Peter Matejka (1963 – 1969). He was a part of the Czechoslovak surrealist group (together with Juraj Mojžiš and Albert Marenčin) which operated only underground. From 1995, he taught at Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra. He left behind a very rich and unique catalogue full of history, mysticism, astrology, philosophy and humour.
Ladislav Guderna (June 1, 1921, Nitra – October 6, 1999, Vancouver) visited evening courses by Ľ. Fulla at the School of Applied Arts. After the school was closed (1938), he started attending Maximilián Schurmann’s private painting school which later became a part of the Slovak University of Technology; Guderna was a part of the department of drawing and painting led by prof. Ján Mudroch and Martin Benka. In 1942, he was expelled from the school for political reasons. Later, he studied at the Academy of Arts in Belgrade. He became one of the founding members of the 29th August Artists Group. In Prague, he was a part of the Mánes Association of Fine Artists. He has been awarded many times for his work both at home and abroad. In 1968, he decided to protest the occupation of Czechoslovakia by emigrating to Canada.
Josef Čapek (March 23, 1887, Hronov – April 1945, the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, Germany) studied at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague, later also at Académie Colarossi in Paris. We know him as a multilateral artist – a fine artist, illustrator, caricaturist, but also writer, journalist and playwright, campaigner against fascism. He invented the word “robot” which was later used by his younger brother Karel Čapek. Josef died in a concentration camp shortly before the end of the war.
Matúš Maťátko (1984, Bratislava) studied at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava. He focused on printmaking and illustrations at Dušan Kállay’s studio. As a multilateral artist, he works with various media, including printmaking, sculpture, painting and illustrating. He also does large-scale projects and works in the public space. He has received several awards and exhibits in different parts of Slovakia and the world.
Mladý pes/Ľubica Fandl Drangová (1988, Bratislava) is a co-founder and the head of the Mladý pes studio and the Bratislava Game Jam project. She studied theatre management at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava and HUMAK in Turku (Finland). She loves art and technologies and the new opportunities this union offers. It has led her to organising events that explore the intersections of these two disciplines and to her own research of interactive graphic art.
Matej Fandl (1988, Bratislava) is a coder at the Mladý pes studio. He studied cognitive science at the Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Informatics at the Comenius University and at the University of Vienna. He works on artificial intelligence, natural user interfaces, multi-agent models and computer visions. He is a fan of unorthodox programming languages, e.g. all kinds of Lisps, Haskell as well as open-source resources like the Godot engine.