BIOGRAPHY: Anna Kotvašova
Anna Kotvašova ,Serbian places like Padina, Kovačica, Aradáč and Opov are just tiny towns on the geographical map of the world, but on the map of naïve art they have the dimensions of a metropolis. Such a position in the world of naïve art is thanks to its artists, who have been creating and exhibiting their works together for more than 65 years. Anna Kotvašova is one of them. She was born on September 15, 1955 in Padina. For the first 25 years of her life, she sewed men’s, women’s and children’s clothing for the entire neighborhood. She taught herself to sew Slovak traditional clothes, embroider shirts and silk scarves, paint
on wood and porcelain. Since 1995, she has been painting naïve pictures. Her inspiration was the naïve painter and native from Padina Michal Povolný. Her biggest supporter is her husband Pavel, he prepares all the canvases for her with his own hands. In her cheerful paintings full of colors, she paints life in the village as she remembers it from her childhood. Life in Padina was full of games, but also hard work in the fields and vineyards.
The main theme of her works is the rural landscape. Sunflowers, turkeys, pumpkins, a yard, but also the interior of a folk house often appear in her paintings. Perspective is in the background when it comes to the importance of the depicted object – pumpkins are life-sized, a rooster is only slightly larger than a sunflower, a turkey and a horse are the same size. In her paintings we find many funny, positive and idyllic motives, for example, a horse eating a pumpkin while a peasant sleeps. Her work is documented in the publications Slovak naïve art from Serbia, the cultural heritage of Slovakia and Serbia – by the author Gordana Blagojević, as well as in the publication „How I dream of colors“ and
in many print periodicals, radio and television programs. Anna Kotvašová has had 76 solo exhibitions in Belgrade, Novi Sad, Báčsky Petrovec, and Pánčevo. Abroad, she presented in the Czech Republic, Macedonia, and Montenegro. Her paintings have been added to many museum and private collections in Germany, Australia, the USA and others. In Slovakia, she exhibited in Bratislava, Bánská Bystrica, Brezno, Žilina, Rajecké Teplice, Piešťany, Dudincie, Modrý Kamen, Martin and Bardejov… She participated in many international naïve art exhibitions – in Bratislava (2019), in Bulgaria (2020,2021 )…She also regularly participates in art symposia in Aranđelovac, Budva, Žabalj, Novi Sad, in Slovakia
- in the High Tatras, in Podjavorník, in Vyhnia, in Biele Vody and in Brunovce. It was the art symposia that became the key moment that allowed her to move forward in her work.
Meetings with several important naïve painters helped her to perfect the technique of mixing and applying colors and finishing with detail, and at the same time they were an inspiration in her determination to paint. She puts love and joy into her paintings. And her desire is to transfer positive energy into everyday life with her work and to illuminate the space with simplicity, but the truth of the subject.
She won many domestic and foreign awards for her works. In 2002, she was awarded in Belgrade for the most beautiful miniature, she won third place at the ninth biennial of naïve art in Bucharest, and first place for the most beautiful painting at the exhibition Výtvarné spektrum 2011 in Bratislava. Since 1999, she has been a member of the Naïve Art Museum in Jagodina, she is also a member of the Naïve Art Gallery in Kovačica and a member of the DUK (Detvian Art “Colony“).
