Uchnar-portret | Danubiana}

ILLUSTRATIONS

09. September 2017 - 29. October 2017

My Illustrations are Paintings, Just Used in Books.

Peter Uchnár expressed the basic feature of his work through this statement. He is a representative of illustration conceived of as painting. The fields of free painting and illustration overlap. They are connected through the essence of artistic adaptation. Illustration is usually based on drawing while the use of color serves rather a coloristic purpose. Uchnár does not base his artistic expression on linearism although he is an excellent drawer. He perceives color as pure painting means and works with it in such a manner. He builds the painting area as deep spaces in which figures and objects are shaped plastically, through tonal values as spatial quality. He chooses colors in indirect and mixed tones which are unified through a light haze. In principle, he avoids contrasting and sharp colors. He maintains the color tone in the function of an unreal context. This is also expressed by the concept of space. It is rather the air in which the compositions lose their weight, free of gravity they frequently levitate in a swirling motion. The bird’s eye view seems to be the peek of an alien entity. The fantasy-like character of his work indicates a connection with contemporary visual constructions of illusive sci-fi worlds.
Selections from the books Truhlica najkrajších rozprávok (Treasure Chest of the Most Beautiful Fairy Tales, 2014) and the iconic Peter Pan (2009, 2015) are at the center of this exhibition. Uchnár fully applied his trademark painting techniques in them - a light brush stroke, hatching, spots and color nuances. His ingenious manipulation with perspective leads to the creation of the arbitrary relation of sizes of figures and objects, impressive contrasts of blow ups and rotating compositions. His free printmaking in this exhibition is comprised of work for collections of poems by Juraj Žembera V rukavičkách z vlastnej kože (In Gloves Made of One’s Own Skin, 2013), Rana po štepárskom noži (Wound Made by a Grafting Knife, 2016) and the collection by Katarína Mikolášová Sonáta pre zem (Sonata for Earth, 2017). These poems inspired him to abstract deliberations on the relationship between the microworld and the macroworld. He implemented them in the form of the innovated technology of engravings on plastic panels which resemble woodcuts.

Biography

Peter Uchnár was born in 1970 in Sobrance. From 1992 to 1999, he studied under prof. Dušan Kállay in the Studio of Printmaking and Illustration at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava before working there from 1999 to 2002. He is active involved in free painting and printmaking, illustration and postage stamp design. His cooperation with the Japanese publishing houses Fukuinkan Shoten, Parol, Shogukan in Tokyo and the Czech publishing house Albatros is especially noteworthy. He has won numerous awards and prizes at home and abroad for his illustrations. He is a multiple recipient of the award for Najkrajšia kniha Slovenska (The Most Beautiful Book of Slovakia) and the Prize of the Ministry of Culture of the Slovak Republic. He has also won the Golden Feather of Belgrade 1999, the BIB´99 Golden Apple, the 2006 IBBY honorable mention, the BIB´09 Children’s Jury Award, the annual award of the Albatros publishing house in Prague for 2011, the nomination for the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2010 and 2016 and others.