The region of Záhorie has given the Slovak art scene many exceptional creative personalities. The scenic designer Vladimír Suchánek (*February 15, 1934, Gbely) is undoubtedly one of them. His work belongs to the fundamental values of our modern culture and is respected even in broader coordinates despite being part of the large but transient art form — theater — throughout the artist’s active career. During his career, the results of the artist’s creative efforts appeared “on the boards that mean the world” often and successfully. Today they are documented only by numerous designs – sketches, drawings, and models. A selection of these is presented by the gallery in an exhibition dedicated to the artist’s life jubilee.

Vladimír Suchánek, a scenic creator, something of a painter, sculptor, architect, designer, and constructor, but above all a humble, unassuming creator, was never seen on stage during performances, even though he gave many their attire and unique appearance. He devoted himself to both theater and television scenography and significantly contributed to shaping the domestic scene. For forty-two years, he worked as a scenic artist at the Slovak National Theater in Bratislava (1962 – 2004), where his collaboration with director Pavol Haspra and costume designer Helena Bezáková was particularly fruitful. The common denominator of the artist’s entire scenographic thinking in the line of new postmodern imagery was the involvement of visual and sensual qualities. His project scenes ranged from monochrome monumental stages intended for various dramatic productions, through occasional action depictions, to painterly and collage spatial objects. He wholly preferred symbolism, metaphor, abbreviation, fragment, and torso as the main expressive means that frame his entire work. He was able to assign a symbolic character of a metaphor with an inner coherence to each element, state, and storyline, thus negating their superficial illustrative nature. This was the basis of his uniqueness, originality, and advanced artistic creativity. In the overall evaluation of the completed scenographic work of this artist, we get an interesting view that offers remarkable statistical data: he created 242 stage designs for our and foreign theaters in the fields of drama, musical, operetta, opera, and ballet, and a great number of notable scenic realizations for television. Suchánek’s nature was best suited to dramas, and despite quickly establishing himself in the realm of tragedy, he also liked to venture into comedic genres. Among his most mentionable works are the sets for plays such as “The Idiot” (F. M. Dostoevsky), “The Cid” (P. Corneille), “King Lear” (W. Shakespeare), “Holuby and Šulek” (J. Podhradský), “Women’s Law” (J. G. Tajovský) adapted into Záhorian dialect by the Moravčík brothers, “Attempt at Flight” (J. Radičkov), “Macbeth”, “Aida” (G. Verdi), “Giselle” (A. Ch. Adam), “Painted on Glass” (E. Bryl), and many others.

The author has been a guest in many of our and foreign theaters and has received several prestigious awards for his work. However, he considers his greatest rewards the applause of the audience and the high attendance of the performances. As he has often said, everything he did was for the audience.

Dana Janáčková