"Myjava Dancers" Slovak artist Ruzena Krcmarova (1997)
(Due to the artist's very delicate use of color, this magnificent watercolor did not reproduce well on scanner.)
In July 1999, to coincide with the Detva Folk Festival, the Kulturny Dom in Detva offered an exhibit of the watercolors of Ruzena Krcmarova. The exhibit included her paintings of dancers wearing kroj of all different regions of Slovakia. We spoke to her (through an interpreter) to let her know how much we enjoyed her work.
Untitled, Slovak artist Peter Babka (1998)
Untitled, Peter Babka (1998)
Slovak artist Martin Hyross
Jaroslav Augusta was born in Humpolec on September 4, 1878. In 1897-1906 he studied in Prague, Munich and Vienna. During the holidays he visited the Slovak regions and searched for ethnographic motifs. After Slatina, Ocova and Dobra Niva, he discovered Detva in 1900. After that, he visited Detva every year from 1901 - 1908, together with Emil Pacovsky. He brought many Czech and German artists to the region and initiated the foundation of a colony of painters. In 1903, together with Emil Pacovsky and Gustav Mally, they founded the first Slovak art and exhibition association, Group of Hungarian-Slovak Painters. The focus of Augusta's creativity are the works from 1902 - 1907, the years when his greatest love was Detva. He combined personal effort with the striving for patriotic creativity, for the paintings capturing the dying beauty of Slovakia. His work has ethnographical as well as cultural and historical values. It is particularly special for the people of Podpolanie, because Jaroslav Augusta brought with his work beautiful and lively images of their past.
(Liner notes from "Detva in Watercolors by Jaroslav Augusta", a permanent exhibit at the Podpolianske Muzeum in Detva, Slovakia)