Viera Kraicová Metamorphosis

We invite you to the exhibition of Viera Kraicová – Metamorphosis at the Danubiana Museum from June 17 to September 1, 2025.

Viera Kraicová (1920–2012) – illustrator is perhaps less well known than painter, but this in no way detracts from the significance and power of this sphere of her work. She devoted herself to illustration systematically and for a long time, from the mid-1950s to the early 1980s, and her most frequent audience was young readers.

Although she had no special training in this field of art, she compensated for this through self-study and by seeking her own means of expression. She approached her illustration work with integrity and developed a distinctive and truly modern style related not only to the content but also to the purpose of the book. Fedor Kriška spoke in this context of “transformation.” Her work as an illustrator was rightly highly regarded.

In the illustrations of her children’s book, we can find the basic principles of her work in crystallized form, but transformed through the specific filter of the genre. Kraicová’s illustrations were not just an epic, easily understandable accompaniment to the literary text.

Although she respected the rules of illustration intended for children and was close to their emotional world, her illustrations were artistically autonomous in their understanding. She either built them on the power of color expression or, conversely, chose a striking black-and-white scale complemented by colorful accents.

They were characterized by simplified shapes and the dramatic power of lines that were somewhat primitive, even childlike or lyrical in feel. She illustrated Němcová’s Babička (1965, published in four editions), Sedmikráska by Mária Rázusová-Martáková (1966) and Erben’s Zlatovláska (1968), The Metamorphoses by Publius Ovidius Naso (1969), a selection of folk ballads Išlo dievča po vodu (A Girl Went to Fetch Water, 1969), Čakanka by Ľudmila Podjavorinská (1972), etc. Although her best illustrations ended up in state and public collections, her estate offers many variants and preparatory solutions – unique illustrations.

Katarína Bajcurová

Biography:

1920 – born on July 5 in Modra
1940 – 1944 – studied at the Department of Drawing and Painting at the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava
1945 – 1950 – studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague
1952 – 1955 – was an assistant to Professor Ján Želibský at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bratislava
1955 – began working as a freelancer
1966 – moved from Modra to Bratislava, where she built a studio in the artist colony on Drotárská cesta
1966, 1967, 1968, 1975, 1980 – received honorable mentions and prizes for her illustration work in the Most Beautiful Book of Czechoslovakia competition
1968 – received the Cyprián Majerník Prize
1987 – received the Ľudovít Fulla Award for her long-term work as an illustrator for children
1996 – had a group exhibition at the Slovak National Gallery in Bratislava
2012 – died on April 29 in Bratislava

Location: Danubiana, Čunovo, Slovakia
Date: from 17.06.2025 – 01.09.2025

Opening hours:

Monday – closed
Tuesday – Sunday from 10:00 am – 6:00 pm

Entrance fee:

Adults – €12
Family (2 adults and 2 children/students) – €25
Pensioners (over 62) – €6
Students – €6
Children (under 6) – Free
Members of the Danubiana Club – Free

Here you will find all the tips for EVENTS BRATISLAVA.