Ľudovít Fulla

Ľudovít Fulla (Born 27 February 1902, Ružomberok – Dead 21 April 1980, Bratislava) was a Slovak painter, graphic designer, illustrator, stage designer and art teacher. He is considered one of the founders of modern painting and graphics of Slovakian Creative Art in the 20th century.. In particular, it was inspired by Slovak folklore. Full tapestries are considered to be the basic works of this art in Slovakia. As an illustrator, Pavol Dobsinsky became a member of the artwork of folk tales.

Ľudovít Fulla was a harbinger of Slovak Modernism. Fulla’s artistic approach – synthesis of modern expression and a folk creativity, flat stylization, saturated colours and decorativeness. Fulla’s largest paintings are often crowded, intensely colourful and full of small scenes, inviting the viewer for closer inspection.

Fulla created a unique blend of disparate influences – children’s art, medieval iconographic, European avant-garde painting and folk art. He innovated in many fields, including book illustration and stage design.

Fulla’s work was fundamentally important for the establishment of Slovak modernism. His personal style is characterized by a special “poetry of the image” relying on surface and decoration, a synthesis of rational and emotional elements, brilliant colour, knowledge of folk art, East Slavonic iconography and world Modernism. Ľudovít Fulla was predominantly inspired by the Prague modernist milieu. In his works, the principles of Wassily Kandinsky, Marc Chagall, Pablo Picasso and Paul Klee can be found. In the only manifesto of Slovak modernists, he and his friend Mikuláš Galanda formulated a firm stance in their attempt of a mixture of styles. Fulla was recognised for generations for his bright red, orange and yellow. This may have played off the folk iconography always present in his works, or may have been a further admixture of artistic period styles.

Ľudovít Fulla was born in 1902 in Ružomberok. From early age he was fascinated by painting and drawing. From the Ruzomberk grammar school he moved to the Higher Business School in Dolní Kubín (1918-1921).

One year he attended the private painting school Gustav Malyho in Bratislava (1921-1922).

In 1922 he went to study in Prague. At the School of Art and Design, prof. Arnošta Hofbauer and prof. František Kysel has adopted the principles of modern art. During his studies, he met seven-year-old native of Turčianske Teplice – Nicholas Galand. Friendship and long-term cooperation have arisen between them.

He finished his studies in 1927 and returned to Slovakia. Immediately after his return, he began to work as a drawing teacher at the mosque in Senica, then continued in Malacky (1927-1929).

In 1928 he invited Prof. Josef Vydra to teach Ľudovíta Fullu to the newly established School of Artistic Crafts in Bratislava. This was able to withdraw back to Slovakia and Mikuláš Galanda’s friend. The cooperation of both artists has thus fully developed. It ended with the death of Galandus in 1938. It is the first manifest of Slovak modern painting, the first of which is the Private Sheets of Fulle and Galand (1930-1932).

In 1943, Fulla moved to Martin, but in 1949 he returned to Bratislava, where he served as head of the department of the monumental-decorative painting of the Academy of Fine Arts until 1952.

In Žilina the painter set up a small private gallery in his house (1958). After the death of his first wife, in 1962 he moved to his sisters in Ruzomberok.

In 1969, the state of the Galéria Ľudovít Fullu built him on the grounds of his old father. It was a gift for an artist’s lifelong work and at the same time it was to become a museum of works that the painter gave to the state. The National Artist in this building has also been a ten-year-old.

Ľudovít Fulla died on 21 April 1980 in Bratislava and was buried in his native Ružomberok.

After returning from Prague, they are trying to promote modern painting together with Mikuláš Galand. At the beginning of the thirties spoke together before the public the manifesto “Private Letters of Fulla and Galanda” in which “expressed the need to do away with the old, nothing nehovoriacimi artistic methods and the established Manier and asked to break through and make way for new means of expression and the procedure to match the dynamic Transformations that were characteristic of the life of man and society of the 20th century “.

Landscapes for his paintings were found by Ľudovít Full in a simple rural life. Folk art, but also inspiration with icons, had the greatest influence on the artist’s handwriting. Characterized by bright colors and unwavering pursuit of readability / clarity is typical for almost the entire Fullová work. A significant a child’s drawing, to which all painters looked up at that time. From art directions influenced painter especially Cubism.

1936 Ľudovít Fulla was rewarded with a bronze medal for stage designs for Applied Arts Triennial in Milan. The following year, he won the Grand Prix for the Picture of the Song and Work at the World Expo in Paris. The tapestry woven according to the above-mentioned image won the gold medal at the Expo 1958 in Brussels. The title National Artist was awarded to Fullova in 1963.