Jozef Jankovic, The Architecture Of Anticipation

Trained between 1952 and 1962 at the College of Applied Arts and the School of Fine Arts in Bratislava, Jozef Jankovič is one of the most influential Slovak artists of his generation.

 

Although Jankovič defines himself primarily as a sculptor, he began working on his own architectural projects in 1972, at the start of the period of so-called "normalisation" in Czechoslovakia. Between 1973 and 1984, he produced over a hundred visionary architectural projects, using drawings (in ink, felt pen or pencil), tempera paintings, lithographs, silkscreen prints, photolithographs and photocollages. From 1976 onwards, his projects also took the form of computer-generated graphics. Jozef Jankovič's projects are a response to the hopes and fears of his time; they refer ironically to the propaganda of the socialist states, to the rhetoric of the Cold War and to any idea of progress. The artist's proposals remain architecture on paper, created without the intention of having them built. The exhibition at the Frac Centre-Val de Loire is a first in France.