Laco Teren
Nothing Can Stop Us!
Slovak National Gallery, Bratislava, Slovakia
September 5, 2019 – January 12, 2020
Emerging in 1980s Czechoslovakia, as communism was coming to an end, Laco Teren turned socialist realism symbols, such as the wheat chaff, into an artistic statement that broke through the highly idealized style of the previous era. Lush, unbridled paintings burst forth from the canvas like the sun dawning on a new, post-socialist day. Later sculptures, more aware of themselves have, at times, less to say. Yet, overall, Teren’s meditations on life inspire and offer useful considerations as the promise of the post Cold War period devolves into the shaky politics of increased nationalism around the globe.
