Galanda and The Galandites

Visitors to an exhibition tend to focus on the theme, but often fail to realise what lies beneath the surface of that theme. For an artist, the atmosphere in which a painting was created is important. The art critic usually analyses technique, presentation, and so on. So, as I suggested, the artist stands at the heart, at the centre of these two perspectives. When he paints for the audience, he loses the critics; when he paints for the critics, he loses the audience."

In its 1957 manifesto, the Mikuláš Galanda Group proclaims its allegiance not only to Mikuláš Galanda, but also to Ľudovít Fulla, Miloš Bazovský, and Cyprián Majerník – to their modern yet deeply Slovak artistic expression. In their contemporary declaration, they resolutely commit themselves to the life of a person in the atomic age, but in hindsight, evaluating this preamble, we can gladly conclude that all significant members have rather fulfilled the words of Mikuláš Galanda: "I understand painting that is to be Slovak as follows: Slovak painting should be Slovak in spirit. To paint Slovak folklore does not necessarily make the painting Slovak."

He did not fully know or suspect what he was talking about. This narrative only began to be applied later. The definitive turning point came in 1972. It was not a pleasant period, with bold and fresh exhibition projects frozen for many years. Fortunately, creative work was not banned, and work continued in the studios, but joint presentations never again took place.

The curators of the exhibition, Martin Dostál and Martin Vančo, deliberately selected works from the group's members that were created during the limited period from its inception in 1957 until 1972. The exhibition is divided into six sections across two floors of the SNG Bridge, corresponding to exhibitions that the artists jointly held in 1957, 1959, 1962, 1965, 1968, and symbolically ending in 1972, when further activities of the group were banned at the 2nd Congress of Slovak Visual Artists. This tragic milestone, presented as a compilation entitled "For Socialist Art", includes the document "Lessons from a Period of Crisis", which had a fatal impact not only on the visual arts, but also on society as a whole. It marked the beginning of a period of unfreedom – known as the normalization.

Ivan Melicherčík, the doyen of Slovak art collectors, accumulated a remarkable collection of works by Mikuláš Galanda, part of which is represented within this exhibition. In parallel, he gathered an extensive collection of works by members of the art group inspired by Galanda's legacy. This series of Galanda's works from Melicherčík's collection is supplemented by his works from the Slovak National Gallery’s Collection of Modern and Contemporary Painting.

The exhibition also features works by the founding members of the Mikuláš Galanda Group – Andrej Barčík, Rudolf Krivoš, Milan Laluha, and Milan Paštéka. Additionally represented from the SNG’s Collection of Modern and Contemporary Sculpture are works by Anton Čutek, Vladimír Kompánek, Andrej Rudavský, and Pavol Tóth, as are their works from the drawing and graphic arts collections, within which Ivan Štubňa, another core member of the group, was prominent. Ivan Melicherčík was friends with all of them for many years; they visited one another even during the period when The Galandites were blacklisted. After 1989, he was the first to present Galanda and The Galandites, the now legendary exhibition from his own collections, at the Central Slovakian Gallery in Banská Bystrica. It was accompanied by a book of the same name – a title also given to the present exhibition.

Thirty-six years later, Milan Rúfus revisited his text and added a reflection written especially for Melicherčík's publication. Through the enthusiasm that we share with this collector, we are now able to present this interesting confrontation – an essential sample of the work of Mikuláš Galanda, a key figure of Slovak Modern, and a cross-section of works by protagonists of the bold and, at the time of its creation, revolutionary group that bore his name.

Leafing through Melicherčík's book, which we compiled together an incredible thirty-two years ago, I found this postscript by Rúfus from May 1993: "I really have nothing to add: except that as a witness to the times, and specifically to everything that happened to this generation during that period, I would change the grammatical tense in the last sentence. It has already borne its fruits. And they came in a way that leaves no one in doubt about this: here, the name Mikuláš Galanda was not taken in vain."

This exhibition does not aim to be an analytical or scientific study. We chronologically map and copy development of the group and its individual members. We do not filter, reprove, or erase anyone. Neither do we concern ourselves with who said what against whom and when. That is not a topic for the difficult times we are all now going through. It is possible that, due time constraints beyond our control when creating the exhibition plan, we have made mistakes. Who does not? Let he who is without sin cast the first stone!

To conclude, I would like to paraphrase Milan Rúfus' introductory text. This exhibition has a banner. Anyone looking for a group with a single, complete artistic programme will in fact find it here. And it is wonderful that an inconsistency in all its variations accompanies it throughout. It always will. For the chapter is now closed. It is the moment to come and to see it.

In times of the rise of artificial intelligence, this is a welcome and necessary act.