The Slovak artist and printmaker Vladimir Gažovič constructs fantastic realms to explore and help to elucidate our understanding of the ‘real’ world. His seemingly unreal visual scenes of phantasmal imagery and unsavoury figures manifest from his astute observation of life, and through his stunning colour lithographs embellished with a kaleidoscope of colours Gažovič delivers a sharp taste of humanity seasoned with irony, sarcasm, hyperbole and ridicule.

A strong and critical tendency of fantasy and imaginative art burgeoned in Slovakia during the 1960s, particularly in the printmaking field. The key figure of the period was Vincent Hložník. A leading Slovak artist of the post-World War II period, Hložník founded the Department of Printmaking and Illustration at the Vysoká Škola Výtvarných Umení (Academy of Fine Arts and Design) in Bratislava in 1952, and became its first educator. Albin Brunovsky and other Slovak artists involved in the so-called Hložník School followed his lead, their work including elements of neo-surrealism, symbolism, romanticism, mannerism and renaissance revival.

Vladimir Gažovič fit seamlessly into this environment as soon as he graduated from the Academy’s printmaking department in 1967, though he resisted the aesthetics of his teachers to embark on his own artistic journey. He excelled in intaglio during his early black-and-white period, and while his early prints show a sense for line and detail, they had not yet developed his later imaginative fabulation.

Vladimir Gažovič’s exceptional command of intaglio techniques did not go unnoticed. For a series of etchings created from 1967 to 1969 he received the Herder Prize, a scholarship that enabled him to stay as an artist-in-residence in Austria for a year at the Akademie der bildenden Künste (Academy of Fine Arts) in Vienna. During this period he created some large colour etchings, such as Temptation of St Anthony, and gradually began exploring the secrets of colour. In addition to advancing his technical skills, the residency offered Gažovič opportunities to meet with artists from the Vienna school of fantastic realism, who excelled in treating colour and light in the same manner as the old masters.

Gažovič employs colour as a vehicle to expand his visual language, and to experiment with the techniques and technologies of lithography. His decision to pursue this path proved pivotal, his lithographs introducing the medium into Slovak printmaking. Gažovič learned the complex processes of colour lithography, and gradually explored their possibilities and finesses, perfecting the technique in a remarkable output of small ex libris and larger works.

We are very grateful to our Russian friend Yuri for introducing us to the work of this artist, and for supplying most of the images.