SLOVAKIAN ARTIST Cyril Uhnák
Cyril Uhnák’s work and life is placed under the sign of circles. He was born in 1959 in Čajkov, in the region of the former Tekov county, rich in distinctive folk traditions. A direct, immediate contact with the unique phenomenon of simple beauty, aesthetic feeling and material authenticity became a defining element in his circle of wanderings and returns, in his views of the world of art at home and abroad. After graduating from the Slovak Technical University, he worked for 10 years in his field.
Since 1993 he has devoted himself to fine art. He lives and works in Bratislava. After several years of gathering and verifying experiences, he came to terms with differing themes and motifs through his creation of cycles. When he started, he worked on architecture. He studied Canaletto’s vedutas of Venice, fragments of Bratislava’s dominating monuments. This was followed by a cycle on the river Danube. He captured the panorama of the Slovak mountains in his work “Carpathians”. Through external experiences, he sees and develops his programme on the poetry and melody of the Slovak countryside. In his dialogue between traditional painting and modern painting materials and approaches, he steps on the path carved out by Martin Benka, Karol Plicka and others.
The genre of painting is static, yet in the cycle “Dance! Sing!”, Uhnák evokes some sort of cinema, drama, coloured playfulness; the rhythm of dance and the joy of movement, too. Moving coloured materials march before us against an abstract background. The rapacious, synthetic materiality of acrylic polemicizes with the naturalness and earthiness of the original.
His compositions create expressive, fully-fledged chromatic chords in the foreground, with a gradual dematerialisation of scenic backgrounds, while playing with the inversion of spatial plans. In the second part, he uses the method of heavy oil glazes on thickly textured canvasses, paying reverence to Venetian painting. Oil is a human face to a painter. It is the materialisation of the fullness and uniqueness of life. On the lifted horizon of the background, mountains float, interwoven with valleys in the summer heat. Let us be carried away by the echo of long-gone mowing songs, the tones of the elegiac, wistful shepherd’s pipe, or the song of a lonely shepherd. Hollý’s world of Selánky, mountains full of people.
In relation to Cyril’s work, I am taking the liberty of paraphrasing the name of the book “The Zest of Life” by Teilhard de Chardin. In the everydayness of an ordinary day, he wears a festive hint of the distant and recent past and “paints today’s book with zest”. In brief: his work is a polemic interplay with a destructive force. It is the demonstration and materialisation of enthusiasm for the intermediary images of the gift and zest of life itself.
Exhibitions
- 1992 Lauda, Nemecko, Galeria Sack Meixner
- 1993 Frankfurt/Main, Nemecko, Slovart
- 1995 Bad Homburg, Nemecko, Tennis Club
- 1996 Lauda, Nemecko, Galeria Sack Meixner
- 1998 Seattle, USA, Gallery Magna
- 1999 Bratislava, Slovensko, Galéria Poľnobanky
- 1999 Bratislava, Slovensko, Galéria Artemiss
- 1999 Bratislava, Slovensko, Danube Art Gallery
- 2000 Puerto Andratx, Španielsko, Casa Nova
- 2000 Bangkog, Thajsko, ICV
- 2000 Senec, Slovensko, Hotel Senec
- 2001 Puerto Andratx, Španielsko, Villa Italia
- 2002 Bratislava, Slovensko, Galéria Poľnobanky
- 2002 Bratislava, Slovensko, Porsche Interauto
- 2002 Bratislava, Slovensko, AmCham
- 2002 Levice, Slovensko, Galéria J.Nécseya
- 2002 Makarska, Chorvátsko, Hotel Meteor
- 2003 Bratislava, Slovensko, Hotel Holiday Inn
- 2003 Bratislava, Slovensko, Galéria Forma Polus
- 2003 Bratislava, Slovensko, Aegon
- 2003 Bratislava, Slovensko, AmCham
- 2003 Senec, Slovensko, Hotel Senec
- 2003 Čajkov, Slovensko, Múzeum OÚ
- 2004 Bratislava, Slovensko, Romeo & Julietta
- 2004 Bratislava, Slovensko, Galéria Thoha
- 2004 Piešťany, Slovensko, Galéria Fontána
- 2005 Brusel, Belgicko, Berlaymont, EK
- 2005 Lauda, Nemecko, Goldener Stern
- 2006 Viedeň, Rakúsko, Radisson Hotel
- 2006 Piešťany, Slovensko, Šandor pavilon
- 2006 Budapešť, Maďarsko, Slovenský inštitút
- 2007 Waršava, Poľsko, Slovenský institút
- 2007 Waršava, Poľsko, Múzeum mesta Waršava
- 2007 Bialsko Biala, Poľsko, Beskydská knižnica
- 2007 Londýn, Veľká Británia, Veľvyslanectvo SR
- 2007 Bratislava, Slovensko, Galéria Thoha
- 2008 Bratislava, Slovensko, Gerulata - Rusovce
- 2008 Monaco, Francúzsko, Galeria Artemisia
- 2008 Londýn, Veľká Británia, Rols Royce HR Owen
- 2008 Bratislava, Slovensko, Galéria Thoha
- 2009 Bratislava, Slovensko, Galéria Pállfyho palác Zámocká ul.
- 2009 Praha, Česko, Slovenský institút
- 2009 Washington, USA, Veľvyslanectvo SR
- 2009 Levice, Slovensko, Galéria J.Nécseya
- 2009 Bratislava, Slovensko, Galéria Thoha
- 2010 Galanta, Slovensko, Salón Galanta
- 2010 Bratislava, Slovensko, Galéria Michalský dvor
- 2011 Brusel, Belgicko, SKM Brusel
- 2011 Brusel, Belgicko, Galerie Incontri
- 2011 Piešťany, Slovensko, Dom umenia
- 2011 Galanta, Slovensko, Galéria Renesančný kostel
- 2011 Bratislava, Slovensko, Galéria Sala Terena, Grasalkovičov palác
- 2011 Bratislava, Slovensko, Rosso Nero
- 2012 Bratislava, Slovensko, Artistico Shopping Palace
- 2012 Florencia, Taliansko, Galeria Mentana
- 2013 Praha, Česko, Artistico O2 Arena, Galerie Harfa
- 2014 Bratislava, Slovensko, Company Art
- 2014 Voderady, Slovensko, Artistico
- 2014 Videň, Rakúsko, Artistico SCS
- 2016Čierna Voda, Slovensko, Atlantída
- 2017 Bratislava, Slovensko, Galéria NR SR, Hrad
- 2018 Orchard Gallery Ostrava
- 2018 Výstavní síň Mánes Praha
- 2019 Orchard Gallery Ostrava