About gallery
The gallery, constituted 40 years ago, was named after M. A. Bazovský, one of the founders of modern Slovak painting who spent the last years of his dramatic life in this town. The gallery found its home in the architecturally attractive baroque Piarist monastery. In 2001 the gallery had to leave the monastery and moved to a fin–de–siecle palace – like building on 27 Palackého Street. Until recently a railway vocational school, it is situated in the town centre, too, and is one of Trenčín´s most beautiful buildings.
The M. A. Bazovský Gallery has always been directed at Slovak fine art of the 20th century, a fact which is fully reflected in the choice of works of art of collection and exhibition. The most extensive and valuable part of the collection, today comprising 4500 works – paintings, pieces of graphic art, drawings, sculptures and photographies, is the set of works by Alexander Bazovský, one thousand paintings and drawings altogether. This singular collection portrays the most serious creative peripetia of the artist, marks the development stages of Bazovský´s creation and elucidates the greatness of his spirit and work.
Another sphere of the gallery´s collecting and exhibiting activities is Slovak fine art of the 20th century. As we were told by the gallery´s director Danica Lovišková, this part of the found represents the period of forming the bases of Slovak fine art after 1918 by presenting its most important personalities, its later boom and development changes in style after the Second World War, as well as a very differentiated form manifested in the works of the members of the middle and young generations, the only exception being the painter Ladislav Medňanský whose life and work are closely connected with the gallery´s field of activities. The gallery records works by M.Benka, M.Galanda, Ľ.Fulla, E.Gwerk, C.Majerník, G.Mallý, J.Mudroch, E.Šimerová, J.Jakoby, V.Hložník, E.Zmeták, Galanda´s disciples and other members of the old, middle and young generations of Slovak fine art.
It also owns a remarkable collection of graphic and sculpture works which presents the key Slovak personalities of these art branches in the 20th century. Works by artist from the region of Trenčín are an inseparable part of the collection fund. The region´s visual image has been formed by many generations of artists who either connected their works with the town and its surroundings or lived and worked here. They include H.Gross, B.Hoffstädter, J.Holoubek, S.Abel, R.Moško, J.Fizel and others, as well as a long list of young artists. Besides collecting works, the gallery is also very active in exhibiting them.
As many as 900 exhibitions have been organized in the gallery since its foundation 40 years ago. These have included not only individual and collective exhibitions of contemporary art,, but also displays of ancient art organized in cooperation with other cultural institutions. The gallery tries to keep up the tradition of the Biennial Exhibition of Czechoslovak Chamber Plastic Art which it organized for ten years until the break up of the Czechoslovak federation. Many interesting exhibitions of jewellery, toys and clothing products, workshops, quizzes, seminars, events for children and most recently also exhibitions of collections of private Slovak collectors often take place here as well.