Dreams Intersect Reality: Slovak Visual Artists in their Own Words
Lee Karpiscak, former Curator and Assistant Director (retired) of the University of Arizona Museum of Art, received a Fulbright research fellowship in 2004. Her recently published book Dreams Intersect Reality: Slovak Visual Artists in their Own Words (Sny na priesečníku s Realitou: Slovenskí výtvarníci slovami) is based on that research.
During the four months that she resided in Bratislava, Slovakia, she interviewed 17 Slovak visual artists. They discussed their personal and professional lives before and after the Velvet Revolution of 1989 and the subsequent fall of Communism in the former Czechoslovakia. The book excerpts those dialogues and places them in the social and political contexts of the time.
The book was published by the Galéria mesta Bratislavy, Bratislava City Gallery, where the book was launched September 2007. In addition, an exhibition of works by each of the artists involved in the study was opened. The American Ambassador to Slovakia at the time, Rodolphe Vallee and his wife, attended the opening on September 19th and, according to The Slovak Spectator (the country’s weekly English news publication), “he praised Karpiscak and participated in the christening of her book with a sprinkle of salt—a reference to the Slovak custom for welcoming a new guest.” According to the Ambassador: “It is because of Lee that America has seen the richness of Slovak Art in the country’s darker times and now.” Ms. Karpiscak has been a frequent visitor to Czechoslovakia since 1992. In 2002, she was honored by the Ministry of Culture of the Slovak Republic for her contribution to the promotion of Slovak art in the U.S.
The book (110 pgs.) is available at the Shop at the Tucson Museum of Art for $20.
