140 Years – Slovak Folk Maiolica
from 7. 9. 2023 to 31. 10. 2023
The manufacture of painted pitchers and pottery is connected with the foundation of the Apprentice Ceramics School in Modra (1883), Jozef Mičko, the first administrator of its workshop, and the arrival of pitcher-makers from Western Slovakia and Moravia. This is where the 140-year story of the Modra ceramic workshop begins. The role of the apprentice school was to train new adepts of the pottery craft, and under the management of Mičko, the administrator of the school and later the company, it revived production which had declined after the guilds fell apart (1872). Production of the characteristic pitchers and pottery painted on a white background progressed slowly, but surely. The first painted pottery was modeled after Dechtice bowls with their distinctive blue paint with turquois and yellow details. Following the ornamentation from the villages of Boleráz and Dechtice, the décor with full and repeating plant and floral decorations in several strips above one another was created.
After Jozef Mičko died in 1911, the workshop was taken over by the joint-stock company Karol Žák a spol., before the name was later changed to Slovenská keramika (Slovak Ceramics) Modra. The company’s management was comprised of the cultural and social elite of Slovakia and Moravia, while Samuel Zoch, Vladimír Jurkovič, and Dušan Jurkovič supervised workshop operations. Thanks to Dušan Jurkovič the company received support from renowned Czech and Slovak artists, which raised awareness of the Modra products in other countries. They also became popular souvenirs and official gifts for high-ranking and state representatives in the interwar period, and the success of the workshop was reflected in the form of several international awards.
The post 1989 transformation process was difficult for Slovenská ľudová majolica (Slovak Folk Maiolica), despite the fact that in 2017 the new management initiated a rejuvenation campaign which culminated in the entry of Modra maiolica in the Representative List of Intangible Cultural heritage of Slovakia.
This exhibition presents the collection of the SNM –Ľudovít Štúr Museum in Modra and Slovenská ľudová majolica (Slovak Folk Maiolica).
