SLOVAKIA: ART AND LITERATURE

Slovak art draws influences from many of the cultures around it. Many of its artistic styles are similar to that of Germany, Austria, Hungary, Poland, and Ukraine. In fact, Slovakia has taken quite a few measures toward preserving its local folklore and folk art.

Wooden folk architecture can be seen throughout the country. One of the best examples of this is in the village of Vlkolínec. Even UNESCO has deemed it worthy of being a World Heritage Site. This village stands out because its 45 log houses and churches have basically been preserved this way since the 18th century. The completeness of this collection is what makes this village extraordinary.

Visual art comes in all mediums from painting to photography to performance art. The mega cathedrals, like St. Elisabeth Cathedral in Košice, were not only fantastic feats of architecture, but artists also contributed their paintings and sculptures as well.

by Karol Miloslav Lehotský

The Austro-Hungarian Empire formed in the late 1860s, and it was a time in Slovakia where a lot of things were happening. However, it did spark a national revival that showed up in their arts. Some of the important names to know from this period include artists like Peter Michal Bohúň (portraitist), Karol Miloslav Lehotský (landscapes), Maximilián Schurmann (impressionist), Vavrinec Dunajský and his son Ladislav Dunajský (sculpture).

by Andy Warhol

As European artists began to experiment with taking art to new levels in the modern age of the 20th century, Slovak artists were right in the mix. Symbolism, expressionism, art nouveau, graphic arts, print art, photography, and pop art became wildly popular among artists. One of the most famous 20th century artists ever was the iconic Andy Warhol, known for his pop art and whose parents were immigrants from Slovakia (he was born as Andrew Warhola). Some other artists of this period to note include Mikuláš Galanda (one of the pioneers of modern Slovak art), Blažej Baláž (text as art), Koloman Sokol (printmaker), Martin Martinček (photographer), Ján Koniarek (sculpture), among many others.

An example of Old Church Slavic

Slovak literature today is mainly written in the Slovak language. But we have Saints Cyril and Methodius to thank for that. These two brothers, who were Byzantine Christian theologians, were tasked with the project of translating the Bible and other religious texts into what came to be known as Old Church Slavonic.

During the Middle Ages, most of the literature consisted of religious writings mixed in with epic tales, folklore, and lyric poetry. Keep in mind that even though written Slavic languages now were becoming a thing, Latin was still heavily used (as well as some Czech), even as they moved into the Renaissance period. The first printed book in Slovak ("The Book of Oaths" by Vašek Zaleský) was produced in 1561. A definite division between religious and secular literature began to take place. A good example of baroque literature is Hugolín Gavlovič’s work Valašská škola, mravúv stodola, which contained 17,862 verses.

The rise in literary nationalism after the French Revolution was felt in Slovakia as well, and they followed in on the Classicism movement that was sweeping Europe at the same time. The Slovak language was still being settled, and much of it was more similar to Czech with a few key changes made to make it a bit more like Slovak. Customization, if you will. But during this time it was still part of the Kingdom of Hungary. The first Hungarian paper was published in 1780, and the first Slovak one a few years later. Poetry was still going strong during the mid-1800s when modern Slovak began to emerge. Janko Kráľ was one of the first poets to publish works using this brand new modern Slovak form. During the latter part of the 1800s when they were part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, poetry fell to the wayside in exchange for more literary realism in prose. Things were changing quickly, and the political scene was driving toward chaos. There were many writers writing in Hungarian, Czech, and Slovak during this time.

The 20th century, and in particular, the years between the two world wars, brought a ton of changes to the country, and this showed in its literature. As the creation of Czechoslovakia came to be, there seemed to be two strains of literature: those of lyrical prose, and those of surrealism. For some reason, I wasn't able to find much on latter 20th century authors. I'm sure they're out there, though. Here are a few names I managed to come up with: Peter Pišťanek (known for his trilogy River of Babylon, The Wooden Village, and The End of Freddy), Juraj Červenák (novels and short stories, known for his historical fantasy and Slavic mythology), Juraj Kuniak (mostly known for poetry but had also published some prose), František Lipka (widely known as the diplomat who helped create Montenegro's independence, he's also a poet and translator), and Martin Rázus (poetry, drama, writer, but he was also a politician and Lutheran priest).

Up next: music and dance