About The Agronauts
In the past, Nitra was the center of Slovak agriculture, which was also reflected in the collection and acquisition policy of the Nitra Gallery, especially in the period before 1989, when works with agricultural motifs were purchased in large quantities, sometimes at the expense of their quality.
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Ernest Zmeták — Potato Harvest
Ernest Zmeták has left us a large portfolio of works out of which we have selected a woodcut print titled Potato Harvest for the Agronauts selection. It is a single print from a limited edition. The print shows a woman working on the field, picking potatoes from a furrow.
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Ladislav Guderna — Harvest
Nitra Gallery’s collections contain 19 works by Ladislav Guderna. The subtle drawing titled Harvest wasofficially transferred into the collection fund in April 1965, during the initial stages of building the gallery collection…
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Jozef Srna Sr. — At a Bridge & Dawn & Summer
Jozef Srna Sr. is one of the artists of the 20th century we are very familiar with, but in a certain sense, he is still unknown within the concept of the national art history. His iconic artistic expressions are in contradiction…
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Ervín Semian — harvest drawings
We have decided to include three drawings from Ervín Semian’s sketchbook into our Agronauts selection.
The three drawings were made in late July 1956. They were officially transferred into Nitra Gallery’s collection fund on January 30, 1969. At the time, the gallery had been operating for four years and the themes of most acquisitions were related to agriculture…
Marián Žilík — Agricultural Fields
slava for which he received the Martin Benka Award. The Nitra Gallery collection has almost half of the series as our depositories also include…
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Klaudia Kosziba — The Sweetest Summer & September
The paintings titled The Sweetest Summer (2017-2018) and September (2008) by Klaudia Kosziba depict nature in different ways as they were created ten years apart. One of the specific processes Klaudia Kosziba uses is her non-stop intervention with the image, its various layers, re-paintings, different depths, different atmospheres, different moods…
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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…
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Ľudovít Slamka —On Pasture by the Nitra River
We are looking at the opposite river bank whose left side is covered in trees and there is a woman with three cows on the right. The image is very sketch-like, relaxed, the background melts into blurred colours, the small surface area of the painting captures the atmosphere very convincingly, without the need for any details to fill in the blanks…
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Raimund Josef Jan Wichera — Spring — Summer — Autumn
Wichera was better known for his figural and portrait paintings. While the artist’s early images are distinctively influenced by his Vienna mentor professor Hans Makart and carry a certain level of portrait realism, his later images from the 1890s…
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Maximilián Schurmann — Espalion — Sower
The tiny print portrays a sower working in a field. His monumental figure with legs spread wide is positioned in the centre of the composition, with his left hand holding a wrap-around tarp with seeds and sowing with the right one. The background shows shrubs, as if bending in the wind, and a cloudy sky. Schurmann was able to use his masterful skills to capture the light, mood…
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Viktor Belányi — Harvest Time
Nitra Gallery’s depository includes a collection of various pieces by Viktor Belányi, whose work is gradually being forgotten. The sketch painted in tempera is a family picture. It depicts a standing man sharpening his scythe with a white grazing horse and yellow fields behind him…
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Ľudovít Hološka — Potato Harvest
The Potato Harvest drawing depicts human figures performing a trivial task – harvesting potatoes. Even though the motif is based on the artist’s authentic observation (which he made during a fall potato harvest gig he went on with his students1), it is not an actual transcription of reality…
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Tomáš Klepoch — Upgrade
The title of the print is in English as it has become a commonly used word even within Slovak language where it is used to describe an improvement, enhancement or modernisation. The focus of the sarcastic image is a barn – a stable or a pig shed – that is “upgraded” with absurd add-ons like solar panels, satellite dishes, a hunting tower and even a circular superstructure resembling a helipad.
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Milan Paštéka — Man With a Scythe
Paštéka’s whole creative program is based on his inspiration with countryside, natural environment and landscapes, which he had a close relationship with as it was where he grew up and spent a part of his life. The painting of Man with a Scythe is set in an outlined mountain region with rural architecture in the right part of the image…
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Juraj Collinásy — Harvest
The small cardboard painting by Juraj Collinásy has been a part of the Nitra Gallery collection since its acquisition in 1972. It was selected for its harvest theme and the period’s focus on building a collection of works related to the region’s agricultural focus…
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Eduard Antal — Agricultural Fields I
A landscape panorama with fields may seem like a rather hackneyed genre theme, but in case of the Agricultural Fields series by Eduard Antal, it represents an interesting case of a gradual move from specific subject matters to geometric abstraction in Slovak fine art at the beginning of the second half of the 20th century.
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Ladislav
Medňanský — Scything and Harvesting
Nitra Gallery owns a single piece of art by Ladislav Medňanský which was added to the gallery collection through an acquisition in the 1980s. The small drawing titled Scything and Harvesting depicts folk people actively working in the field…
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Ivana Šáteková — There Were Both People and Women
Ivana Šáteková is an artist and activist who focuses on social and political topics, reflects on Slovak folklore and literature, traditions, proverbs and last but not least, Slovak human nature, which she re-evaluates critically and offers…
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Janko Alexy —
We Have Joined
the JRD
Formally, the painting We Have Joined JRD from Nitra Gallery’s collection is a typical Alexy’s portrait from the second half of the 1950s when he returned to his favourite technique of dry pastel…
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