Rudolf Fila is a very powerful and multifaceted figure. Is it possible to capture that in a single exhibition?
Capturing Fila in his full breadth through a single exhibition is extremely difficult. Fila was not just a painter; he was a thinker, a writer, a brilliant educator, and a man of continuous inner dialogue. That is why I did not take the path of mechanical chronology, but instead emphasized the internal drama and core of his work – the dialogue between Eros and Thanatos, between creative energy and the awareness of transience.
What did you focus on?
I focused on what is most original about Fila: his principle of overpainting and appropriation. At the same time, it was important to show him in full painterly mastery – not only as a conceptual artist, but as a painter of extraordinary sensuality who could bridge centuries with a single brushstroke.
How did you approach this task? Did you dream of something like this, were you the initiator, or did the offer to curate this project come as a sudden challenge?
It came more as an inner obligation. For years after Fila's passing, there was a huge debt owed to him. When the Slovak National Gallery approached me, it was clear that I wanted to attempt it.
I also wanted to prepare such an exhibition because I shared decades of intense dialogue with him. I took it as a repayment to a person who meant so much to me and to a part of my generation.
How long did you work on the project and with whom?
Since approximately March of this year. But I have been carrying this intention in my head for practically all six years since Fila's death.
One never works alone on an exhibition of this scale. A key role was played by the SNG execution team and my close friends, all of whom are admirers of his work. Thanks to this team, I managed to transform the offered spaces into an architectural whole that allowed me to present Fila's work according to my vision.
What material did you have at your disposal and what did you have to acquire?
First, it was necessary to map the collection holdings in Slovak galleries as well as works located abroad and verify the possibilities of loaning them to the SNG. In parallel, I contacted both major and smaller private collectors of Rudolf Fila's works in Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and Moravia. Gradually, I gained a clear idea of the structure of the exhibition.
Once the exhibition had taken a firm shape following the initial enthusiasm and agreement between myself, the heirs, and the SNG management – both in terms of the selection of works and the spatial layout – Rudolf Fila's family suddenly changed their mind, which they eventually declared publicly in Denník N. I arranged a personal meeting with the heirs,but the outcome was uncompromising: "It would be a misfortune if young people began to perceive him through an exhibition organized by this leadership. We will not back down a single step." The subsequent interview in Denník N was explicitly campaign-like in nature.
Under the influence of this unexpected situation, some collectors withdrew their works, which I had already firmly incorporated into the concept. On the other hand, others came forward who, precisely in response to these events,selflessly offered works that I had previously known nothing about. During such earthquakes, work naturally becomes extremely complicated. However, I persevered because I am used to working under pressure – just like under the old regime. Yet I was surprised by the censorship from people I would have never expected it from. But what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. And as for the talk spreading in the spirit of "after all, there will be an exhibition sometime in the future"...
Well, for those to whom I offered it and who had the opportunity to do it until now, nothing came of it. Furthermore, I presented the gallery with a major challenge: through architectural design, I expanded the original exhibition space by up to two-thirds. It was organizationally and technically immensely demanding, but I am pleased with the result – despite all obstacles, Rudolf Fila's works will be exhibited in all their beauty. The execution team performed a truly admirable job in preparing this exhibition, and they have my sincere thanks.
Which phases of Fila's art and life did you focus on?
We focused on the focal points where Fila's painterly hand crystallized into its most authentic form – from his Informel starting points and calligraphic reflections of the 1960s, through the confident development of the phenomenon of overpaintings and interventions into books and reproductions in the 1970s and 1980s, to his late, extraordinarily concentrated works.
The exhibition is titled Between Eros and Thanatos (Between Eros and Death) – how does it reflect this journey or condition?
Regarding the title Between Eros and Thanatos: that is the very core of Fila's thinking. Eros for him does not merely mean physical sensuality or the motif of the female nude, although the body and the female element play a key role in his painting. Eros in Fila's work is primarily unrestrained life energy, curiosity, the passion of touch, the joy of a pure gesture,the pleasure of paint matter, and the sensory experience of the world. Opposing it is Thanatos – the consciousness of finality, the passage of time, aging, and death.
When Fila overpaints an old print, a Baroque engraving, or a page from an old anatomical atlas, he touches something that is already culturally past. His painterly intervention is an act of resurrection: through Eros (a new, pulsating brushstroke), he awakens Thanatos (past, dead time). The entire exhibition is conceived as a vibrating space between these two poles – between the pleasure of creation and the melancholy of transience.
We hear Fila taught you – how do you remember that? Were you also friends?
Rudolf Fila represented an unexpected stroke of good fortune in misfortune for me. When I was thirteen, my father passed away suddenly. In 1960, as a fifteen-year-old, I successfully passed the entrance exams for the School of Applied Arts (ŠUP) in Bratislava, and in that same year, Rudo Fila became my teacher. Not only for me, but for most of my classmates,it was a miracle.
His guidance was an attempt at the holistic development of the young people entrusted to him. School assignments, homework, and constant prompts to think about literature, philosophy, or music naturally raised us toward self-reflection and independence. At the same time, he deeply respected the individual personality types of his students and guided them based on their own attributes.
He never wanted to raise epigones or be a role model for blind imitation. After graduating from secondary school and later university, I received an offer from him to teach alongside him in the display design department at ŠUP, which he headed. I took it as a huge gesture of trust and tried to work as best as I could. The well-known proverb that "nothing grows under a large tree" did not apply to him at all.
He gradually and naturally passed many initiatives onto me and later to my other friends and colleagues – Milan Bočkay, Klára Bočkayová, and Marián Meško – who continued his pedagogical legacy. For my part, I can say that I gradually became his close friend and had the honor of standing by him until the end of his life.
Fila always seemed like a consummate intellectual, inspiring respect, but he was also very friendly and open. What did he mean to artistic Bratislava?
Even during the 1970s and 1980s period of Normalization, Fila represented a space of freedom. At the Bratislava ŠUP, he created a microcosm where students were taught not just artistic craft, but how to think. In a society dominated by ideological deadweight and schematism, he brought world context, philosophy, semiotics, and modern aesthetics into the discussion. His studio at ŠUP and his home were places of true dialogue. He had an exceptional trait: he respected you as an equal partner, even when you were eighteen years old.
He did not shape epigones; he did not impose his own hand. He was interested in what was in your head and helped you articulate it. For the Bratislava scene – and for an entire generation of artists – he was proof that inner freedom and a top-tier intellectual level could thrive even in an unfree society.
Fila came from the Czech lands, which also refreshed Slovak art. At the same time, he was globally minded. How was this manifested in his work?
Rudo Fila was not a "Czech import" in the sense of some foreign aesthetic, but he brought something more fundamental:extraordinary intellectual discipline and the habit of reflecting on what he was doing. In the Slovak environment, which was traditionally strongly sensual, expressive, and often intuitively tied to myth or landscape, his approach felt immensely cleansing. Fila was a painter who continuously thought about painting in the categories of European culture and philosophy. In his work, this manifested in a pivotal gesture – the overpainting.
He did not start on a blank canvas like a demiurge pretending nothing existed before him. He worked with reproductions,old prints, and historical bookbindings. That is a purely global, postmodern, and conceptual principle: to enter into a dialogue with the memory of culture, to appropriate it, and to confront old mastery with a new painterly intervention – often rapid, gestural, erotic, or ironic. He was thoroughly informed about what was happening in the world. It is a sovereign, confident interpretation of European visual heritage.
Rudolf Fila's wife, the restorer Dorota Filová, was also well-known and highly respected. They were a well-matched couple. Did you know her as well?
She was a lady with natural authority and a top-level expert. As a restorer, she possessed flawless old-master craftsmanship. There was a fascinating parallel between her work and her husband's: Mrs. Filová restored historical works to their original life, cleaned them, restored them, and occasionally created faithful copies of them, while her husband intervened in some of these works with a painterly gesture, giving them an entirely new meaning. Their apartment and studio were not just a workplace, but an oasis of refinement.
Is Fila's work sufficiently known and highly appreciated by the broader public?
Let's be frank: it is not. And to a certain extent, that is natural. His art is demanding – it is conceptual painting that assumes a viewer willing to think. When he worked with overpainting, he was not creating a simple picture, but a visual essay. Anyone wishing to fully understand Fila's intervention into a historical engraving or a book page must possess at least basic cultural literacy, a feel for irony, and a sense of layered meanings. Within the professional community – among artists, theorists, and true collectors – Fila holds an inviolable position.
However, for the broader public, he remains somewhat of a hidden figure. Furthermore, our society still tends to perceive modern art through romanticized stories rather than analytical depth. But the debt owed to him also lies in the fact that institutions such as the Slovak National Gallery should consistently make his work accessible in all its scope and context.
Which of his works are your personal favorites?
Such works are found across the entire spectrum of his oeuvre, but three works from my youth particularly enchanted me.The first is a painting from the 1960s titled A Pilgrim Meets a Tree on His Journey. My classmates and I saw it in Brno,where we hitchhiked to attend Fila's first solo exhibition. Our teacher was very surprised by our arrival. He invited us for a glass of wine and introduced us to a legend of Czech visual art, Václav Zykmund, who opened the exhibition for him.
Moreover, he personally arranged improvised overnight accommodation for all of us so that we could return home to school the next day. The exhibition itself lasted only a single day – it was banned, likely because it departed from the regime-approved view of art. I really wanted to exhibit this painting at the current retrospective as well. However, the collector who owns it refused to loan his collection of paintings for this exhibition, though he offered that I could buy it.His financial requirement was far beyond my means.
I am very pleased that two other paintings I love, Early Spring and Fairy Tale, are part of this exhibition. These and many other works by Rudolf Fila form lifelong "perennials" for me, and I greatly look forward to engaging in quiet dialogue with them once again. Perhaps visitors who step into this exhibition will find works that resonate with them just as strongly as they do with me.
