Photographs by Martin Martincek

Description

What the abstract-expressionist artist of the twentieth century created with paints on canvas, Martin Martincek accomplished in photographic images. Time of the Sun treats us to new abstract realities generated by the interplay between water and the sun, captured by his camera to give to these fleeting and unique epiphanies permanent existence and to us joy forever.

Since Martincek is 88 years old, this may be his last cycle: photographic abstractions. In his long career as an artist-photographer, we see him go through many cycles from totally realistic to totally abstract as can be documented in a dozen or so books in which his photographs have been published in the past 50 years. In previous decades of his life, he devoted his photography to ethnography, focusing on the country and people of Central Europe.

In this his latest work, the question arises, "What are the limits of photography?" Has it reached its potential in Martincek's photographic abstractions?

In September of 1998, the Martin Benka Prize was awarded to a photographer for the first time, with the following words: Martincek's photography "is like sculpture in its grandiosity. It is like painting in its picturesqueness. It is like graphic art in its accuracy."

Dr. Martin Martincek, educated to be a lawyer, was prevented by Communists from practicing law fifty years ago. Felix culpa! He became the most outstanding Slovak photographer.

Comments and Reviews

"It is like graphic arts in its accuracy." If one has a passion and appreciation for modern art expressed in new forms, Martincek's book is a gift one will prize. Common objects are transformed in ways that only a vivid imagination can inspire. The ordinary becomes the extraordinary. One can peek into the inner essence of a simple flower and visualize new and varied forms — some of the many minute details that the naked eye would so easily miss. Streams and rocks and ripples of water acquire monumental grace. Through his inspired eye, Martincek has taken the jewels of Slovakia's natural beauty and translated them into a universal celebration of the power of light to reveal and uncover the hidden treasures of God's creation. In his own words he writes that he intended the book "to enrich the known alphabet of nature."

One can find few faults with this stimulating collection of art...it is hard to detract from the great aesthetic value of this superb celebration of nature in art.

The book is a treasure for any collector of modern art. It speaks a universal language, a language which engages the eye to look far beyond the deceptive vision of first impressions. Martincek delves deeper, penetrating the inner soul of nature. In doing so, he reveals to us a new world, a world which shows that appearances can often be deceiving. We are seeing only part of the picture. Martincek's art liberates nature from its conventional facade, and inspires us to reach farther in our search for the secrets which nature has in store for those who wish to take a visionary challenge.

— Michael Kopanic

Matica Slovensk, the Slovak Cultural Institute in Martin, in cooperation with Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, has published a stunning volume on Slovak art — the photographs of Martin Martincek. Published under the title Martin Martincek: Time of the Sun (Cas Slnka in Slovak). It features a bilingual English-Slovak text written by Mari?n Pauer and eloquently translated into English by Darica Gondov?. The book contains a collection of powerful masterpieces of photography. They seize one's attention through a dramatic interplay of light and darkness. Pauer engages us with a stimulating essay that facilitates our entrance into a hidden world which the artist unleashes.

Martincek uses his camera as a vehicle to employ sunlight as a way of penetrating the inner essence of his natural subjects which he selected from Slovakia's fields, forests, and streams. His foray into the natural world beyond the clearly recognizable shows the infinite possibilities which an artist can uncover using modern, creative photography. He has taken photography to a new level, one which penetrates the very soul of the subject he is capturing on film.

As Pauer relates the story so effectively, photography became a passion for Martincek that gave meaning to his life. Born in 1913 in the village of Liptovski Peter in the northwest Slovak Liptov region, the artist had always felt a close communion with nature and the Slovak countryside. Like many others of his generation, the second World War interrupted his life and career as a lawyer. He lost his first wife, two sons, and his father during the Slovak National Uprising, a Slovak resistance movement against the German occupiers in 1944. After the war, he helped organize the Commission of Justice and the Commission of Finance. He rose to become head of the Presidium of the Slovak National Council in Bratislava. Trying times followed.

Following the Communist seizure of power in February 1948, his fortunes faded. Martincek first found himself in prison, and was then forced to perform hard labor at a brickyard in a Liptov village. He later worked on a communal chicken farm. A heart condition added to his troubles.

As political conditions improved, Martincek's newly-found career in photography began a gradual turn for the better in the late 1950s. He never had his own studio; the Liptov countryside served that purpose, and it served him well. He became a member of the Union of Slovak Artists and went on to co-found the Janko Kr?l Literary Museum in Liptovsk? Mikul??. His increasing success enabled him to become a freelance photographer by 1961; a flurry of exhibits followed. He co-published his photographs with the works of famous poets such as Laco Novomesk? and Milan R?fus. By 1970 his talents were receiving considerable fame. Both the Czecho-Slovak government and the International Association of Photography based in Bern, Switzerland, awarded him honorary titles. Other successes followed, including his inspiration of director Du?an Han?k's award winning 1972 film, "Images of the Old World." Martincek obtained the ultimate recognition for his achievements in 1998, when he became the first photographer ever to receive the highly coveted award named for Slovakia's most celebrated artist, the Martin Benka Prize.

In expounding the reasons for his receiving the award, the prize committee provided the following quote as a rationale for their choice:

" . . . Martin Martincek's work has expanded the boundaries of photography's artistic definition thanks to its timeless artistic expression and powerful content.
It is like sculpture in its grandiosity.
It is like painting in its picturesqueness.
It is like graphic arts in its accuracy."

— Michael Kopanic
Jednota