Peter Pollág was born in Levoča, Slovakia, in 1958. He is involved in a wide range of artistic activities. Apart from small-format painting and graphic art, he is also keen on book illustration, monumental work, mosaic, tapestry and animated film. During 1977 – 1983 he studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bratislava. In 1980 he was awarded a scholarship to the Accademia di Belle Arti Pietro Vannucci in Perugia, Italy. During 1986 – 1987 he was an artist in residence at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris and at the Faculdad de Bellas Artes Universidad Complutense in Madrid in 1988. In 1989 he completed his PhD studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bratislava and in Prague. During 1983 – 1990 he taught at the Academy in Bratislava. He exhibited his oeuvre at a number of exhibitions, attended numerous symposia and went on many creative journeys and his work can be found in public and mainly private collections in Slovakia and abroad. He’s been awarded numerous awards and lives and works in Bratislava.
Peter Pollág belongs to the generation that entered the art scene in the mid-1980s. In spite of different points of departure and later development, this generation shared a common characteristic: immediacy and spontaneity associated closely with the anticipation of the end of an era, and a sensitive approach to the events of the surrounding world.
An important moment in the development of Peter Pollág who trained in Bratislava, was his study at art academies in Perugia, Paris, Madrid and Prague where he came into direct contact with new art streams and acquired an intimate knowledge of the heritage of old masters. This sensitive close relationship to the present and the historical, to the modern and the classical was reflected in his choice of means of expression and technique, in the meaning and content of his work, and became a determining factor for his entire oeuvre. Moreover, at the end of the millennium this relationship ranked him among the “cultural nomads” who crossed the boundaries of styles, historical periods and territories in order to creatively approach our heritage. Born in the historic town of Levoča, which still resounds with the spirit of Master Paul, Peter Pollág was initially concerned with impressive landscape studies, which he soon abandoned in favour of figural compositions and lively scenes depicting figures. His work displays a strikingly dramatic expression and distinctively stylised form, a characteristic painting gesture and dynamic drawing emphasising the artist’s exceptional colourist qualities. The artist’s pictures, prints, miniature bookplates and illustrations offer a unique view of man and the world. Although his world is once contemporary and another time distant, real or imaginary, he has the vision of a sensitive observer, thinker and philosopher. Looking at his works of art we realise the power of the message of European cultures and perceive the impact of mediaeval panel painting and the Byzantine sense of magnificence, but we also recognise the monumentality and colour of French and Spanish masters.
On the other hand, we are astonished by the artist’s courage to combine diverse painting techniques, collages, exacting structures, assemblages and relief painting, or even his unconventional venture into monumental sculpture created in the recent period. Unrestrained wandering through centuries and styles enables Peter Pollág to experience and pass on ancient legends and historical messages, yet firm roots in the present enable him to convincingly interpret contemporary mementos. The artist not only speaks through his narrative scenes and rich stories, but he also expresses himself through the mysterious language of parables, symbols and metaphors. The complexity of his forms and colours is astonishing and so is his unambiguous simplification of expression. His oeuvre seems to be a coded chronicle of mankind, an allegory of ideals of generations and a warning against the power of evil, a mirror of eternal struggle of life and death, of lasting values and nothingness. These determining powers and contrasts controlling the past and the present are brought to life in the works of Peter Pollág and make us pause and contemplate, urging us to confront our own inner world with the surrounding universe.
