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for Cultural and Educational Buildings) together with a text
by the author of SNG (Author's comments). The new director
of the SNG Štefan Mruškovič 23 also gave his critical view
as the user.
1982
historians Tibor Zalčík and Matúš Dulla mentioned several
of Dedeček's buildings in their book Slovenská architektúra
1976–1980 (Slovak Architecture 1976–1980 ). They put the
Slovak National Gallery building together with works such as
the Community Centre in Dunajská Streda by Jozef Slíž, Eva
Grébertová and Alexander Braxatoris and the House of Arts in
Piešt’any by Ferdinand Milučký in the chapter “Mohutnost’ formy
a tvaru” (The massiveness of form and shape) compiled as the
Slovak analogy or parallel of the international movement of new
brutalism in Great Britain. “This visual-art expression, however,
has not reached the extreme brutal forms in our country and
it has always been softened, mainly by the introduction of the
classic harmonic principles of human-scale composition.” 24
The authors of the book – in line with the magazine
articles of architect and historian Dr. Martin Kusý – stated that
the strong point of the gallery extension was the generosity
and the extent of the intention 25 to construct the first gallery
building ever to exhibit modern art in Slovakia (generosity
seems here to represent another, more acceptable side
of the coin of the criticized hugeness, massiveness replacing
the more complex concept of monumentality). They also
saw the visual effect of the contrast between the horizontal
lines of the new wing and the arcade arches of the historical
building as a strong point of the SNG bridging.
The “colossal scale” of the SNG front façade and its
“insensitive connection to neighbouring buildings” was
considered less convincing. 26 Zalčík and Dulla also criticized
the symmetrical composition relationships between the
historical building and the new front wing (bridging) with
the asymmetrical operation (entrance to the building in the right
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