Vladimír Gažovíč is an excellent representative of contemporary Slovak graphic art who transformed certain format and meaning impulses of the classical message of art development within the current context in his work.
At the end of the 1960s Gažovič began to develop his original concept of graphic work which enabled him to break through to the foreign art scene more intensively than anyone before him. The novelty here lies in the technological perfection of his work with original lithographs printed from stone. This new technology allowed him to perceive the artistic form in a new way and to build it on painting principles. By working with graded color shades and light he forms the plasticity of shape as a spatial value. This approach is unique even today. He works with figure as a multi-string instrument – a carrier of moral and ethical values. The legacy of Hieronymus Bosch and later symbolists and expressionists resonates in his work from this aspect.
The work of Vladimír Gažovič developed thematically in freely conceived cycles. The Ovidian cycle Metamorfózy (Metamorphoses) (1979), which confirmed his mastery and his deep knowledge of human features, nature and character, and of the conflicts of good and evil, was important for the future character of his work. He delivers in-depth diagnoses of the phenomena of man in fascinating visual compositions in the following famous cycles: Kolotoče života (Carousels of Life)(1983/4), Americký pás cudnosti (American Chastity Belt) (1983), Eros Haus (Eros House)(1991), Chamtivosť (Greed)(1994/95) and others. These cycles are frequently unlimited in time and incomplete, which allows him to return to these themes. This approach is not limited to graphic art; it can also be seen in his paintings and drawings which he intensively worked on in recent decades and in which he transformed the themes through different technological means and in unique form. The space that he addressed in his graphic work and paintings through artistic means in two dimensions he projects in his sculptures in the matter – actual space relation.
Vladimír Gažovič was born in 1939 in Bratislava. From 1961 to 1967 he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bratislava in the studio of prof. Vincent Hložník. From 1969 to 1970, he won the Herder Scholarship to the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna where he studied under prof. Maximillian Melcher; in 1979 he completed his internship at the Academy of Fine Arts in Amsterdam. From 1967 to 1982 he was a teacher at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bratislava. He works with several disciplines in his creation, particularly printmaking, painting, drawing, illustration and sculpture and has won dozens of international prizes and awards for his work. They include: Honorable mention, Philadelphia -1981, Ex Aequo Prize, Kraków -1984, The Hanga Annual ´86, Tokyo -1986, 1st Prize of the Town for Lithography, Sint-Niklaas - 1993, Special Prize, Tokyo - 1998, Golden Prize for Ex libris, Shanghai – 2013 among others. In 2009, he won the Krištáľové krídlo (Crystal Wing Award) for fine art and in 2015 he won the Award of the Slovak Artists Association. His work is represented in many foreign museum collections and private collections, particularly in Europe and the USA.
