The Slovak Myth exhibition examines the core of Slovak art in an attempt tofind the essence of ”slovakness”.
Concentrating on various representations of slovakness, i.e. the determining, fundamental notions of Slovakia and the Slovaks, disseminated by Slovak as well as other, mainly Czech, artists, the exhibition naturally focuses on those ideas which became visual images (without avoiding texts) and which are, in addition, charged with the mythical dimension. The spotlight is, however, not on the myth as a historically unfounded legend or a made-up story, but rather on the myth as the primary story, encompassing the primordial image, an archetype of the community. Under this approach, the Slovak myth is not a mere ensemble of prehistoric or secondary historical accounts or a collection of historical apocryphal stories but more of a loose set of images with inter-related themes. Although the themes by themselves are selfcontained, in their complexity they forge a functionally linked chain comprisingthe actual thematic line of the "Slovak myth". This thematic line or thematic whole emerged in Slovak fine art and photography relatively late compared to literature. At first it was typified by an increased interest in folklore and the evolution of popular-genre painting at the break of the 19th and 20th centuries and in the first decade of the 20th century (in the works of Jozef Hanula, Jaroslav Augusta, Ivan Žabota or Gustáv Mallý with, almost concurrently, created photographs by Pavol Socháň). Masterworks in the modern idiom of the Slovak myth were created in the 1920's and 1930's (to be found mainly in the work of the painters Martin Benka, Miloš A. Bazovský, Janko Alexy, Mikuláš Galanda and Ľudovít Fulla, and in the photographs and films by Karel Plicka, Miloš Dohnány). In the 1930's some artists pointed to the "underbelly" of the myth drawing attention to the various forms of its abuse which were temporarily used to shore up different streaks of ideological totalitarianism (Koloman Sokol, Cyprián Majerník). Attempts to revitalize the theme surfaced in the end of the 1950's and during the 1960's when the myth reappeared as recollections of the "vanishing" world of one's youth (contributions by members of the Mikuláš Galanda Group: Vladimír Kompánek, Milan Laluha, Andrej Rudavský, photographs by Martin Martinček). The story of the Slovak myth also has its prologue (some of the works of Peter Bohúň and Vojtech Klimkovič, founders of the "national" school of painting from the mid-19th century), and its epilogue - selected recent contributions also shown in the exhibition (e.g. works by Stano Filko, Július Koller, Pavol Breier ml., Ľubo Stach, Jozef Ondzik, Marek Blažo, Svätopluk Mikyta and others), whereby the current works often exhibit both mental and aesthetic detachment of their authors. In addition, the exhibits include works by several generations of artist from Bohemia and Moravia who were attached to Slovakia in one way or another and were inspired by it in their own work (Josef Mánes, Miloš Jiránek, Josef Čapek, Josef Šíma, Emil Filla, Eduard Ovčáček).
