Milan Paštéka — Meeting

Despite the fact that the oil painting Stretnutie/Meeting depicts the figural scenes (two figures and a motif of a horse) the author pays attention especially to the capturing of the atmosphere. The robust figures without face, with minimum indication of their eyes and mouth, are being reduced into features. It is a stylized depiction with existential undertone. On one hand, the figures are large empty shapes, on the other one they show bodies full of emotions. The painting is characterized by the expressive colourful pastel surfaces which exponentiate the nostalgic feelings from the painting.

Milan Paštéka entered the art scene in the late 1950s and early 1960s. He was one of the most significant representatives of the new figuration in Slovakia. In 1957 he became the co-founder of the Mikuláš Galanda´s group, which emerged as the opposition to the dogmatic socialistic realism with the aim to link to the tradition of the Slovak Modern Art from the 1930s, especially to the artwork by Mikuláš Galanda, but also Miloš Bazovský and Ľudovít Fulla. Until its end in 1968, the group formed the domestic art scene in a very significant way. In the last period of his work, Milan Paštéka attached himself to the non-figurative expression. He worked in the media graphics, drawing and especially painting.