ANDREA Bartošová was awarded first place in the Painting 2008 competition for artists aged 35 and under on November 19. The prize came along with a check for Sk300,000 (€9,958).
This was the third time Bartošová was shortlisted for the award. She came in second last year, winning Sk200,000 (€6,639). But this year, the jury picked her work entitled Medzinárodná Výletná Plavba (International Cruise) as the best of the 20 finalists, Alena Walterová, a spokesperson from VÚB Bank, told The Slovak Spectator.
Nadácia VÚB, a foundation set up by the second largest bank in Slovakia, organises the annual competition to support young outstanding artists and help establish them on the professional art scene. This was its third year.
“Bartošová’s work steadily improved at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design,” Ivan Csudai, a Slovak painter and Bartošová’s teacher, told the Pravda daily. “Graduating freed her hands, and her work has expanded. She is constantly improving.”
Bartošová has already exhibited in Bratislava, Prague, Zlín, Kuřim and Trnava.
Her work has attracted interest from art dealers. Her painting Na Cestách (On the Road) sold for Sk79,000 (€2,622.32) at an auction at the Soga auction house.
“With a few strokes of a brush she is able to capture what is essential and what is hidden at first sight,” the international jury led by Francesco Tedeschi, an Italian theoretician and art critic, commented when awarding her the prize.
Ján Vasilko came in second with his painting Tri Postavy v Horách (Three Figures in the Mountains), winning Sk200,000 (€6,639). The third prize and Sk100,000 (€3,320) went to Ľudmila Hrachovinová for her work Mozoček (Little Brain).
A total of 97 young painters entered the competition this year. Their works are on display in the exhibition premises of the Slovak Culture Ministry at SNP Square 33 until December 22.
The other members of the jury were art historian and curator Beata Jablonská, artist Karol Weisslechner, art historian and curator Eva Ľuptáková, and fine art theoretician and painter Ladislav Daněk.
