EXHIBITION
Playing Artemis | Andrea Bartošová
Playing Artemis
Author: Andrea Bartošová
Curator: Silvia L. Čúzyová
Opening of the exhibition: 23. 10. 2021
Duration of the exhibition: 23. 10. – 28. 11. 2021
The two main characters of this intimate exhibition plot are the playful Artemis – a beautiful and outrageous goddess and Andrea Bartošová – an excellent painter. Andy and her work is both personal and generational for me – it is one of the very first works I dared to interpret, giving me a glimpse into the then unknown but exciting world of contemporary painting. Time has clearly proven that it was not a coincidence, beginner’s luck or an isolated glimpse of potential, because the painter has matured and her work is now a stable part of the Slovak art scene. In their emergence after 2000, they were part of or the cause of the great boom and revival of interest in the current form of “pure” painting (without overlapping into other media), which successfully and progressively metabolized the digital image as a painting template and a great challenge of its time. The “Csudai” painters, now in their forties and mostly established painters, together and individually, have redefined and unmistakably directed other forms of the medium of painting in Slovakia.
Súčasná podoba tvorby Andy Bartošovej je v niečom úplne iná, ale v niečom stále podobná svojim začiatkom – energická, nápaditá, životaschopná a výsostne maliarska. Autorka suverénne a cieľavedome vytrvala vo svojom úsilí a po mnohých rokoch sa vrátila k figurácii. Covid izolácia, nemožnosť maľovať scény a postavy zo života, a tento intenzívne seba/reflexívny čas, to sú dôvody, ktoré pravdepodobne obrátili jej umeleckú pozornosť naplno ku klasike, ku kultúrnej pamäťovej konštante a nadčasovosti v podobe antických zdrojov. Artemis a ďalšie známe postavy pozvané do nášho času z antického mytologického panteónu (Hermés, Hypnos, Hekaté), formálne vychádzajú zo známych a zaužívaných sochárskych spodobnení. Bohovia a bohyne sú tu však autorsky modifikované a “okomentované”, no a samozrejme už aj pohodlne zabývané v súčasnosti. Dostali novú dynamiku a kolorit, ale najmä nové významy a atribúty, ktoré sú pre dekódovanie obsahu podstatnými detailmi, odkazujúcimi na prítomnosť alebo budúcnosť. Vybrané postavy monumentálne napĺňajú až pohlcujú formát maľby. Ich podoba je výsledkom uvoľneného, radostného a suverénneho maliarskeho prednesu.
Výstavu obrazov na plátnach opäť dopĺňajú aj obrazy na vázach. Modra a keramika patria predsa nerozdeliteľne k sebe! Keramika nás ako ľudstvo sprevádza od prvopočiatkov, pretrvala a je aktuálna neustále. Nakoniec, najviac informácií o podobách antickej maľby máme práve zo starovekej maľby na trvanlivých vázach, pretože z monumentálnej maľby sa nezachovalo takmer nič. Andrea Bartošová experimentuje s pigmentovou maľbou na zakrivenom povrchu keramiky už od roku 2019. Pokračuje vo svojich motívoch, tu ale v úplne inej technológii. Jednotlivé kúsky vo výsledku originálne spája do “korpusov” – keramických stĺpových objektov.
Autor: Andrea Bartošová (*1977, Levice)
Graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Bratislava (1998 – 2005). The beginnings of her career were focused on the figurative tradition (portraiture, figurative compositions) and its innovation (various popular and film characters such as Mickey Mouse or Blairwitch), through which she mastered the medium of acrylic painting. Later on, more personal subjects were added (such as the Twins), where she worked with more courage on large pictorial formats. During her school days, which were an important stepping stone to the future, she was lucky to meet people and classmates who were similar in generation and thinking (E. Šille, R. Sedlačík, D. Baffi, M. Czinege, J. Mrvová). Andrea Bartošová is a passionate painter with a proverbial Yugoslavian temperament. She alternates figurative compositions with her interest in landscape (especially urbanized), or more abstract paintings made with a spatula “in one breath”. “As soon as a story has been ‘retold’, I alternate the subject matter.” In 2008 she won the VUB Painting of the year Competition, and in 2007 she won 2nd place. In total, she has been in the finals of this prestigious painting competition six times. From 2003 to 2009 she was part of the Tranzit SK collective. She has completed several painting residencies at home and abroad (Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovenia), countless solo and group exhibitions and her work is represented in private art collections in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
