Jozef Jankovič was born in 1937 in Bratislava. After completing his studies at the local School for Applied Arts, he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design, also in Bratislava, from 1956 to 1962. He was rector of the academy from 1990 to 1994 and obtained his professorship in 1994. Jankovič’s work includes sculptures, prints, drawings and art jewellery. He had over 50 individual exhibitions and participated in numerous group exhibitions and sculpture symposia. Jankovič passed away in 2017 in Bratislava.
At the 1971 symposium, the artwork by Czechoslovakian artist Josef Jankovič was singled out by critics as an extraordinary achievement. The upright sculpture consists of frames that come in different formats and contain compressed amputated parts of the human body. Even though Jankovič’s work invites a comparison to the genres of hyperrealism and pop that came from the West at the time, we need to contextualise it in terms of the broader historic context. The author came from a country on the other side of the Iron Curtain where aspirations for political liberalisation were suppressed two years earlier, which helps us view the sculpture in a different light.
