DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.41588#0050
With the exception os architecture, Slovak visual culture was not characteristic sor the plurality os
opinions typical os the sirst post-war decade. Aster the coup in 1918 it remained national-revivalist
and thus tendentious and enclosed. The clear-cut modernist traditions that might have prepared the
soil sor the birth os avant-garde did not arise. For similar reasons (besides political ones, well known
to all os us), the historiography os Slovak modern art is anachronically preoccupied with the
"ethnically pure” introvert history. Those pages os history outside the above-mentioned sramework
remained mostly unnoticed.
The acitivity I want to present was neither a movement with a clearly sormulated programme nor
a group with its own organizing and publicist platsorm, it was a kind os complex os art sorms and
activities aimed at the radical modernization os visual culture.
The School os Applied Arts established and headed .by'Joses Vydra in 1928 was the centre os these
essorts.5 Vydra’s aim was to sound a school slexible in its reaction to the demands os the period and to
raise local production to an international level. Himsels an outstanding teacher and organizer, he
knew that this aim could be achieved only with creative people having a modern outlook on
education. Theresore he invited two young and very, vigorous painters, Ludovit Fulla and MikulaS
Galanda, the ambitious ceramist-beginner Julia Horovä, the experienced and well home-oriented
textile designer and painter Frantiäek Maly as well as the avant-garde artists Zdcnek Rossmann (an
architect and book-designer srom Brno) and the photographer Jaromir Funke srom Prague. The
creative energy os the young prosessors radiated beyound the school and other avant-garde,
insluenced not one but all spheres os the visual arts.
Galanda and Fulla, painters os disserent disposition but os the same determined will to liberate
a picture srom tendentious literality, caused a stir in painting. At the beginning os 1931 they published
at their own expenses the first volume os Ssikromnt listy FuUu a Galandu (The Private Paper os Fulla
and Galanda) as a "platsorm springing srom the grounds os an uncompromising struggle sor new
artistic movements and the new painting in general”.4 The sour issues published until 1932 played the
role os a manisesto in the context os Slovak art, although they were not a manisesto in the true sense os
the word. They proclaimed ”an absolute painting that does not wish to imitate or depict objects: it
intends to create the picture out of lines and colour-sorms".3 At the same time, in Galanda’s work the
stimuli os Artisicialism had weakened and he was preparing himsels sor the reception of lyrical
Noe-Classicism. Fulla passed through a brief abstract period in his work (sig. 39,40) just besore the
appearance os the original symbiosis os primitivist compositional and iconographic principles with
post-Cubist decomposition os form. Rebrettably, the records os this intermezzo are not numero us.
The "Suprematist Folder” srom 1929, a linocut, was supposed to be printed but sinally was not. The .
original has not come down to us. The typoraphic poem "Roses and Slope” was repainted while the
typographic composition named "Picture” is known srom reproduction only.
When Fulla stated in his "Private Paperv that a longer duration os Elementarism is only possible in
typographic advertisement and commercial art he expressed his own experiences in book-design,
poster, and advertisement production.6
The Constructivist heritage could be sound in the important role, played by typography in
advertising the modem artistic esforts. In 1929 the journal Slovensko grassa (Slovak Graphia) was
issued sor the sirst time with the aim os pushing sorward the modernization os poiygraphy and
commercial art. It was edited by Antonin Horejs and designed by Cudovit Fulla. During the sive years
os its existence the Slovensko grasia published several articles on typography, advertisement and the
applied arts. The journal also paid attention to Polish book-printing and Hungarian posters. It
published Tugcngold’s article on the "Russian Painting os Last Decade” and contributions by
48
opinions typical os the sirst post-war decade. Aster the coup in 1918 it remained national-revivalist
and thus tendentious and enclosed. The clear-cut modernist traditions that might have prepared the
soil sor the birth os avant-garde did not arise. For similar reasons (besides political ones, well known
to all os us), the historiography os Slovak modern art is anachronically preoccupied with the
"ethnically pure” introvert history. Those pages os history outside the above-mentioned sramework
remained mostly unnoticed.
The acitivity I want to present was neither a movement with a clearly sormulated programme nor
a group with its own organizing and publicist platsorm, it was a kind os complex os art sorms and
activities aimed at the radical modernization os visual culture.
The School os Applied Arts established and headed .by'Joses Vydra in 1928 was the centre os these
essorts.5 Vydra’s aim was to sound a school slexible in its reaction to the demands os the period and to
raise local production to an international level. Himsels an outstanding teacher and organizer, he
knew that this aim could be achieved only with creative people having a modern outlook on
education. Theresore he invited two young and very, vigorous painters, Ludovit Fulla and MikulaS
Galanda, the ambitious ceramist-beginner Julia Horovä, the experienced and well home-oriented
textile designer and painter Frantiäek Maly as well as the avant-garde artists Zdcnek Rossmann (an
architect and book-designer srom Brno) and the photographer Jaromir Funke srom Prague. The
creative energy os the young prosessors radiated beyound the school and other avant-garde,
insluenced not one but all spheres os the visual arts.
Galanda and Fulla, painters os disserent disposition but os the same determined will to liberate
a picture srom tendentious literality, caused a stir in painting. At the beginning os 1931 they published
at their own expenses the first volume os Ssikromnt listy FuUu a Galandu (The Private Paper os Fulla
and Galanda) as a "platsorm springing srom the grounds os an uncompromising struggle sor new
artistic movements and the new painting in general”.4 The sour issues published until 1932 played the
role os a manisesto in the context os Slovak art, although they were not a manisesto in the true sense os
the word. They proclaimed ”an absolute painting that does not wish to imitate or depict objects: it
intends to create the picture out of lines and colour-sorms".3 At the same time, in Galanda’s work the
stimuli os Artisicialism had weakened and he was preparing himsels sor the reception of lyrical
Noe-Classicism. Fulla passed through a brief abstract period in his work (sig. 39,40) just besore the
appearance os the original symbiosis os primitivist compositional and iconographic principles with
post-Cubist decomposition os form. Rebrettably, the records os this intermezzo are not numero us.
The "Suprematist Folder” srom 1929, a linocut, was supposed to be printed but sinally was not. The .
original has not come down to us. The typoraphic poem "Roses and Slope” was repainted while the
typographic composition named "Picture” is known srom reproduction only.
When Fulla stated in his "Private Paperv that a longer duration os Elementarism is only possible in
typographic advertisement and commercial art he expressed his own experiences in book-design,
poster, and advertisement production.6
The Constructivist heritage could be sound in the important role, played by typography in
advertising the modem artistic esforts. In 1929 the journal Slovensko grassa (Slovak Graphia) was
issued sor the sirst time with the aim os pushing sorward the modernization os poiygraphy and
commercial art. It was edited by Antonin Horejs and designed by Cudovit Fulla. During the sive years
os its existence the Slovensko grasia published several articles on typography, advertisement and the
applied arts. The journal also paid attention to Polish book-printing and Hungarian posters. It
published Tugcngold’s article on the "Russian Painting os Last Decade” and contributions by
48