Alex Mlynárčik
Biography
Alex Mlynárčik lives alternately in Žilina and Paris. In 1951 (at the age of 16), he was detained in Austria for illegally leaving Czechoslovakia, convicted, and imprisoned. Later, he worked as a painter and decorator, designer, and photographer. From 1959 to 1965, he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bratislava (prof. Milly and prof. Matejka) and at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague (prof. Sychra). From 1965 to 1967, he served as an assistant at the VŠVU in Bratislava. In 1967, he began to work freelance, collaborating especially with architects on the artistic shaping of interiors and exteriors. Gradually, he started to realize artistic works abroad, mainly in Paris, publishing manifestos and theoretical texts. He received scholarships from the Ford Foundation (1972) and the Guggenheim Foundation (1986). In 1968, he rejected an offer to live and create in France and did not change this decision until 1989. During the 1970s and 1980s, he lived in Prague, where he gradually integrated into its cultural scene. He often had long-term stays in Žilina and Paris during this time. In 1972, he was expelled from the Slovak Union of Visual Artists; Mlynárčik was explicitly regarded as a promoter of "the ideas of bourgeois Western art." From 1990 to 1991, Mlynárčik served as the director of the Art Gallery in Žilina.
Alex Mlynárčik is one of the few Slovak visual artists who managed to influence the development of West European visual art. Artistically and personally determining for him was his meeting with the French art critic Pierre Restany. He defined the theory of Nouveau Réalisme and founded the eponymous group (1960-64), whose most prominent representative was Yves Klein, and according to which mundane, ordinary things and realities entered into the artwork. A. Mlynárčik became the protagonist of the "Slovak line" of Nouveau Réalisme (Chalupecký), which selected two fundamental ideas – appropriation of reality and audience reaction. In the first half of the 1960s, A. Mlynárčik was influenced by the works of M. Medek and leaned towards abstraction (informel). In this line, he created cycles of gilded reliefs that he called Epitaphs or Reliquaries. Later works titled Permanent Manifestations, in the form of finalized ready-made torsos of female bodies, already represented Mlynárčik's inclination towards Nouveau Réalisme. It was based on the premise that mundane things (e.g., mannequins of female bodies) had escaped from mundane contexts, proving that in every realistic object there is also a "poetic charge." However, from around the mid-1960s, Mlynárčik's artistic expression almost dematerialized. Mlynárčik rather "manifests his and collective feelings than produces images" (Lamač). The "action line" of Mlynárčik's work became increasingly stronger. Mlynárčik understands art as a "total action" (Štraus). In 1965, A. Mlynárčik published the HAPPSOC Manifesto (together with Filko and Kostrová) and organized eponymous actions in Bratislava. He continued to organize similar events under various names – with different focuses and in various locations – both at home and abroad (France) until the late 1990s. In the conditions of socialist realism and normalization, these actions had a clear "revolting" subtext. In 1971, he founded, along with architects Mecková and Kupkovič, the VAL group (Paths and Aspects of Tomorrow). Over the course of 20 years, Mlynárčik participated in approximately ninety art-decorative projects in architecture and urbanism. These projects allowed him to "financially survive" his avant-garde artistic orientation. In the 1990s, Mlynárčik created series of photomontages in which he combined various motifs, often landscapes, into which he "embedded" female bodies or female nudes. Mlynárčik sees his work primarily as a means and result of collective communication, engaging the meanings of mundane everyday experiences, and he does not shy away from audience interpretation or even completing his work.
Alex Mlynárčik lives alternately in Žilina and Paris. In 1951 (at the age of 16), he was detained in Austria for illegally leaving Czechoslovakia, convicted, and imprisoned. Later, he worked as a painter and decorator, designer, and photographer. From 1959 to 1965, he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bratislava (prof. Milly and prof. Matejka) and at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague (prof. Sychra). From 1965 to 1967, he served as an assistant at the VŠVU in Bratislava. In 1967, he began to work freelance, collaborating especially with architects on the artistic shaping of interiors and exteriors. Gradually, he started to realize artistic works abroad, mainly in Paris, publishing manifestos and theoretical texts. He received scholarships from the Ford Foundation (1972) and the Guggenheim Foundation (1986). In 1968, he rejected an offer to live and create in France and did not change this decision until 1989. During the 1970s and 1980s, he lived in Prague, where he gradually integrated into its cultural scene. He often had long-term stays in Žilina and Paris during this time. In 1972, he was expelled from the Slovak Union of Visual Artists; Mlynárčik was explicitly regarded as a promoter of "the ideas of bourgeois Western art." From 1990 to 1991, Mlynárčik served as the director of the Art Gallery in Žilina.
Alex Mlynárčik is one of the few Slovak visual artists who managed to influence the development of West European visual art. Artistically and personally determining for him was his meeting with the French art critic Pierre Restany. He defined the theory of Nouveau Réalisme and founded the eponymous group (1960-64), whose most prominent representative was Yves Klein, and according to which mundane, ordinary things and realities entered into the artwork. A. Mlynárčik became the protagonist of the "Slovak line" of Nouveau Réalisme (Chalupecký), which selected two fundamental ideas – appropriation of reality and audience reaction. In the first half of the 1960s, A. Mlynárčik was influenced by the works of M. Medek and leaned towards abstraction (informel). In this line, he created cycles of gilded reliefs that he called Epitaphs or Reliquaries. Later works titled Permanent Manifestations, in the form of finalized ready-made torsos of female bodies, already represented Mlynárčik's inclination towards Nouveau Réalisme. It was based on the premise that mundane things (e.g., mannequins of female bodies) had escaped from mundane contexts, proving that in every realistic object there is also a "poetic charge." However, from around the mid-1960s, Mlynárčik's artistic expression almost dematerialized. Mlynárčik rather "manifests his and collective feelings than produces images" (Lamač). The "action line" of Mlynárčik's work became increasingly stronger. Mlynárčik understands art as a "total action" (Štraus). In 1965, A. Mlynárčik published the HAPPSOC Manifesto (together with Filko and Kostrová) and organized eponymous actions in Bratislava. He continued to organize similar events under various names – with different focuses and in various locations – both at home and abroad (France) until the late 1990s. In the conditions of socialist realism and normalization, these actions had a clear "revolting" subtext. In 1971, he founded, along with architects Mecková and Kupkovič, the VAL group (Paths and Aspects of Tomorrow). Over the course of 20 years, Mlynárčik participated in approximately ninety art-decorative projects in architecture and urbanism. These projects allowed him to "financially survive" his avant-garde artistic orientation. In the 1990s, Mlynárčik created series of photomontages in which he combined various motifs, often landscapes, into which he "embedded" female bodies or female nudes. Mlynárčik sees his work primarily as a means and result of collective communication, engaging the meanings of mundane everyday experiences, and he does not shy away from audience interpretation or even completing his work.
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