Slovak National Gallery
Bratislava, Slovak Republic
project leader
The Slovak National Gallery (SNG) is the supreme and central gallery institution of Slovakia. Its activities and the extent of its collections contribute to the fulfilment of this requirement in the spirit of the conceptions for the building and management of the SNG. The SNG can be understood as a gallery institution creating collections which fulfil the expectations of the expert and general public; its role is to develop as the national art historical institution and, at the same time, to collect, preserve and interpret works of art at home and abroad.
The mission of the Slovak National Gallery is not only to collect and preserve art, but also to look for ways to provide access to it, to educate, inspire and mediate a path for the general public to historical as well as modern and contemporary fine art culture. We would like to present the Slovak National Gallery as an open institution built and operating on fundamental museum standards, which are not only maintained, but also renewed and advanced. A gallery should not only be the source of significant curatorial initiatives and quality projects and their presentations, but also the site of discussions and interpretation platforms and eventually even the guarantor of artistic and creative values. In practice, this means an ambitious and legible dramaturgy of individual research, acquisition, exhibition and publication ...
The Slovak National Gallery (SNG) is the supreme and central gallery institution of Slovakia. Its activities and the extent of its collections contribute to the fulfilment of this requirement in the spirit of the conceptions for the building and management of the SNG. The SNG can be understood as a gallery institution creating collections which fulfil the expectations of the expert and general public; its role is to develop as the national art historical institution and, at the same time, to collect, preserve and interpret works of art at home and abroad.
The mission of the Slovak National Gallery is not only to collect and preserve art, but also to look for ways to provide access to it, to educate, inspire and mediate a path for the general public to historical as well as modern and contemporary fine art culture. We would like to present the Slovak National Gallery as an open institution built and operating on fundamental museum standards, which are not only maintained, but also renewed and advanced. A gallery should not only be the source of significant curatorial initiatives and quality projects and their presentations, but also the site of discussions and interpretation platforms and eventually even the guarantor of artistic and creative values. In practice, this means an ambitious and legible dramaturgy of individual research, acquisition, exhibition and publication projects, without narrowing their conceptual, thematic and stylistic dimension, modifying the mission of the SNG or devaluing or inflating new, old, domestic and international art.
The gallery was founded on July 29, 1948, and one year later it organized its first exhibition entitled Výstava obrazov starých majstrov zo zbierok SNG / Paintings of the Old Masters Paintings from its collections. This institution, which started out with two rooms and roughly 500 books and 500 artworks, has grown into a gallery with almost 65,000 collection items, many of which are part of the national cultural heritage. Slovak as well as foreign artists can be found among the collections of paintings, sculptures, drawings, graphic art, naïve art, photography, stage design, architecture, applied arts and new media art.
The Slovak National Gallery, besides its premises in Bratislava, consists of a network of four branch gallery facilities: Zvolen Castle, Strážky Chateau in Spišská Belá, the Ľudovít Fulla Gallery in Ružomberok and Schaubmar’s Mill in Pezinok.
Selected exhibitions:
Anna Daučíková: Work in Progress: 7 Situations, curator: Monika Mitášová
Laco Teren: Nothing Can Stop Us! curator: Katarína Bajcurová
Useful Photography. Photography in Contemporary Slovak Art, curators: Aurel Hrabušický, Filip Vančo
Hard-Boiled School: Contemporary Graphic Art Confronting History, curator: Alexandra Kusá
Martin Kollar: Exkurzia / Field Trip, curator: Aurel Hrabušický
Berger, curators: Matej Fabian, Nina Gažovičová
