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Klára Bočkayová

Klára Bočkayová

Born May 27 1948, Martin
Lived in Stupava

Klára Bočkayová came on the art scene in the early 1970s as an artist with a strong interest in painting and drawing. In 1974, she began to work with subjects typical for rural and urban households of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. She works with the principles of citation and the interpretation of mundane folks topics. Bočkayová uses frottage effects enriched with colourist and dynamic aspects. She utilises items such as tablecloths, blankets and embroidery as an underlay for frottage rubbings, which become ironic commentary on the position of women in society. She applies the method of frottage not only on paper, but also in an innovative way on canvas and finely woven white cloth. She creates the technique of so-called phased frottage (Ludvík Kundera), in which, in addition to an ornamental motif, she also captures the movement arising from the shifting underlying medium.
(Štěpánka Bieleszová)


drawing, painting, textile

1973

After elementary school in Dolny Kubin, she enrols at the Secondary School of the Arts in Bratislava, where she studies under Professor Rudolf Fila. Her classmates include the artists Igor Minárik, Vlado Rostoka, Svetozár Mýdlo, Katarína Sabínska-Zavarská and future restorer Katarína Gregorová. She lived with the other students in a dormitory in a former Ursuline convent. During a visit to Prague in 1964, she first encounters the work of Pablo Picasso, Henri Rousseau, Josef Šíma, Jindřich Štyrský and Toyen, Jan Zrzavý, Rudolf Kremlička, Jan Preisler, František Bílek and Jiří Balcer. In 1967, she is admitted to the Academy of Fine Arts and Design, where she spends her first two years in preparatory studies with Professor Dezider Milly, then in the department of "free painting-tapestry" with Professor Peter Matejka. Her classmates include Dezider Tóth and Svetozár Mýdlo. Milan Bočkay studied in the adjacent atelier. In 1968, during a trip to Moscow, Leningrad and Kiev, she visits the Pushkin Museum, the Tretyakov Gallery, is fascinated by icons at the Andrei Rublev Museum and studies Rembrandt’s chiaroscuro at the Hermitage in Leningrad. Her return home is marked and delayed by the invasion of the Warsaw Pact troops. In order to avoid ideological and political issues, she works in ceramics intended for a children's town in Trenčín-Zlatovce. She had worked even earlier with ceramics before in the creation of ceramic tiles for the atrium of a German primary school in 1972. 1973 – marries Milana Bočkay, a classmate two years her senior.

1976

Depozit (solo exhibition, Bratislava)

1977

Before the birth of son Marcel, the family moves into a one-room flat in Petržalka, Bratislava, for a few weeks, where Klára attempts to continue her drawing and painting in her free time. She paints a series of “cookbooks”. She exhibits her work in the as yet unfurnished flat of Vladimír Kordoš and, subsequently, in the flat of Dezider Tóth (Deposit). Her husband Milan takes a trip to visit Rudolf Fila in his native town of Příbram near Brno. Fila then joins Bočkay, Vladimír Kordoš and Marian Mudroch on a journey around Moravia. Klára joins them the following year, at which time they travel regularly in Mudroch’s car. They visit, for example, Tasov, the house and the grave of poet Jakub Deml, the Old Empire and the family of Josef Florian. In the following years, meetings are held with Adolf Kroupa, Václav Zykmund, Miloš Koreček and Vilém Reichman. Bočkayová makes friends with the artists Ivan and Dalibor Chatrný, Dalibor's daughter Dana, as well as with J. H. Kocman and Pavel Rudolf. They meet with Miroslav Šnajdr in Olomouc, and they regularly visit the poet and painter Ladislav Novák in Třebíč. They also travel every year to Kunštát to see poet Ludvík Kundera.

1978

Artist and art theorist Jiří Valoch becomes interested in the Bočkays’ work. Milan's friend from his mandatory military service, František Miklošek, comes up with the idea for an exhibition at the Slovak Academy of Sciences, where he is employed. In 1978, the first joint exhibition of seven artists is held (Milan Bočkay, Klára Bočkayová, Daniel Fischer, Otis Laubert, Marian Meško, Igor Minárik, Dezider Tóth) with brief descriptions of the individual artists by Jiří Valoch. The next exhibition takes place in the representative and congress centre of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Smolenice, and on this occasion, the Bočkays publish a samizdat catalogue with the text of Jiří Valoch. Another show is held at the Slovak Academy of Sciences in 1979, with Ladislav Čarný, Ľubomír Ďurček and Rudolf Sikora joining the original line-up from the previous year. State Security begins to take an interest in the event and the artists are questioned. Milan Bočkay is fired from his job, leaving the family with no income. After 1980, Klára Bočkayová takes up residence in Krušovce near Topol'čany, in the house her husband Milan grew up in. During the reconstruction of the house, Klára creates the foundation for the Last Supper cycle in the new plaster as it dries on the walls. Igor Kalný and Milan Bočkay organise Klara's exhibition in Stupava at the house of Igor's friend (nicknamed Boris Obluda). Dubbed the “three-hour” show, the exhibition for friends lasts one day.
Juicy morning
Juicy morning (painting)
Hommage à L. Fontana
Hommage à L. Fontana (mixed media)
Look, the day is pink
Look, the day is pink (mixed media)


1979

Untitled
Untitled (graphics)
Golden rain
Golden rain (graphics)


1980

Trojhodinová výstava (solo exhibition, Stupava)


1984


1985

Klára Bočkayová (solo exhibition, Brno)

1987

František Mikloško, after a warning from State Security for exhibitions at the Slovak Academy of Sciences (1979), comes up with the idea of exhibiting at the Institute of Applied Cybernetics in Hanulova Street in Bratislava. An exhibition of works by Rudolf Fila, Josef Jankovič, Václav Boštík and Milan Bočkay is held in the institute’s lobby. Ludvík Kundera introduces Klara's solo show and also contributes the text of the samizdat catalogue. She exhibits older works on textiles and new frottage rubbings with movement on the paper, which Kundera dubs “phased frottage”. In the summer of 1987, Klára works with oil pastels to create her first phased frottage on textile combined with acrylic painting. Instead of the classic canvas, she begins to use a finely-woven white fabric that is more suitable for capturing the rubbing of the embroidered base. To work with the acrylic paint, she makes spatulas of different widths from plexiglass. In 1988, Klára takes part in the 4th Triennial of Drawing in Wroclaw, Poland, and then travels to Paris with the Slovak Fine Arts Fund.

1988

Gently with fear
Gently with fear (painting)

New Slovak Painting (group exhibition, Bratislava)
Pět let Galerie H (group exhibition, )
...Igorovi Kalnému (group exhibition, Bratislava)

1990

In 1989, Klara's solo exhibition Anamorphosis is held at the Laco Novomeský Gallery at the Writers' House in Bratislava, with Zuzana Bartošová providing the introduction to the show. In 1990, she participates in the exhibition Contemporary Slovak Fine Art in Esslingen (concept by Zuzana Bartošová and Alexander Tolnay). In 1991, she is part of the Interpretation exhibition at the Špála Gallery in Prague (concept by Jana Geržová), where she exhibits her Last Supper series of drawings. At the invitation of Ludvík Kundera, Klára and Milan Bočkay become members of the Q Group in Brno
Umenie proti totalite (group exhibition, Bratislava)
40 Artistes Tcheques et Slovaques (1960-1990) (group exhibition, Paris)
90 Authors in the Year 1990 (group exhibition, Prague)
Interpretácia (group exhibition, Bratislava)

1991

Členská výstava sdružení Q (group exhibition, )
Dream about Museum (group exhibition, Žilina)

1992

Klára Bočkayová: Obrazy (solo exhibition, Brno)
Czech and Slovak Contemporary Art 1950 - 1992 (group exhibition, Novara)
Minisalon (group exhibition, Prague)
Grey Brick 35/1992 (group exhibition, )
Font in the Picture (group exhibition, Brno)
Czech and Slovak Drawing 1989 - 1992 (group exhibition, Žilina)

1993

Klára Bočkayová: Kresby (solo exhibition, Nové Zámky)

1994

Minisalón (group exhibition, New York (NY))
Solidart 2000: Katalánsko-slovensko-česká výstava kreseb a grafik (group exhibition, )

1995

Klára Bočkayová - Igor Kalný (solo exhibition, Žilina)

1998

Klára Bočkayová: Fall angels (solo exhibition, Bratislava)

2000

In 2001, she meets Václav Malina, who had assumed management of the City Gallery of Plzeň and offered the Bočkay's their own exhibition. Presentation of the A-R Group in Budapest at the Ludwig Museum. The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue with texts by Rudolf Fila and Peter Zajac. 2016 – works by Klára Bočkayová are included in exhibitions at the Olomouc Museum of Art entitled Coal, Brush, Scalpel. Collection of Drawings of the Olomouc Museum of Art and The Rustling of Angel Wings – Angels in European Fine Art.

2001

A-R csoport (group exhibition, Budapest)
Podobné a rozdielne (solo exhibition, Plzeň)
Podobné a rozdílné (solo exhibition, Plzeň)
Jiří Kolář the Collector (group exhibition, Prague)

2003

Contemporary Slovak Fine Art from Collection 1st Slovak Investment Group (group exhibition, Košice)
Těšba 70/80 (group exhibition, Frýdek-Místek)

2004

Klára Bočkayová: Podzimní andělé (solo exhibition, Ostrava)

2005

Klára Bočkayová: Anamofózy (solo exhibition, Nové Zámky)

2006

Kalendáře pro Jindru Štreita (group exhibition, )

2007

Príbeh skupiny A-R (group exhibition, Nitra)


2009

Pertu No 8 (solo exhibition, Nové Zámky)


2012


2014

Vy troubo! for Jiri Kolar (group exhibition, Opava)


2018

Ručné práce (solo exhibition, Bratislava)

Muzeum umění Olomouc 2011-2024