The world of folk art was discovered in high school through a classmate who studied folklore and brought him a recording of songs by Ján Ambróz. He further awakened artistically through music, photography, drawing, and eventually found his way to wood - also thanks to chisels given to him by his wife, who was then still his classmate at Constantine...
The world of folk art was discovered in high school through a classmate who studied folklore and brought him a recording of songs by Ján Ambróz. He further awakened artistically through music, photography, drawing, and eventually found his way to wood – also thanks to chisels given to him by his wife, who was then still his classmate at Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, where they studied ethnology together. Initially, he perceived and confronted wood through high art. He had observed all artistic styles, perfection appealed to him. However, in his own work, he gradually moved away from this perception and evolved towards the completely opposite pole, inspired by folk art, the land, and the “ordinary” person.
He has been active since 2005. He started with low reliefs, primarily of stylized musicians with many technically demanding details. He drew on knowledge gained from studying professional literature and communicating with Dušan Benický and Viliam Gruska. Thanks to the ULUV and its then chief artist Janka Menkynová, in 2007 he shifted his focus from figurative work to carved horses. These horses were missing from the ULUV stores at that time, so he was persuaded to produce them. He also imprinted them with his unique style while preserving original folk decorative techniques – burning, carving, painting on wood, and inspiration from shepherd sticks geometric ornament. His direction was influenced by an old wooden horse from the village of Potok near Bešeňová in Liptov, which Janka Menkynová presented to him at the beginning of their collaboration.
The horses, which now form the bulk of his work, are outline carvings, refined with gouges and carving knives, and finished with rasps and files. He uses wood of varying hardness, acknowledging each one’s unique nature. Some pieces are technically more complex, others simpler, sometimes made from wood found during his nature walks. In addition to his artistic vision, he gives them a patina using brushes, rasps, files, sandpaper, abrasive cloth, sponges, flannel, powdered pigments, and layered glazing of colored coatings. This creates the appearance of an authentic trace, bringing them closer to the spirit of the old world that deeply attracts Miloslav Jaroš.
“The first chief artist of ULUV, Václav Kautman, characterized the final finishing patina as deception, artistic fraud,” Miloslav Jaroš notes. However, as he adds shortly afterward, patination gives a unique touch to the product, evoking the past imbued in old items. He wants to emotionally approach this: “That yellowish color, shaped by human touch, dust, trace, conceals within it the work of a man, his specific life, and on the wood, it stands out like wrinkles on the face.”
His aesthetics, materialized not only in wood but also in original paintings on glass, are not just an external experience of beauty but also a reflection of the hidden connections of human life, whether past or present, in which he seeks honesty and truth without falsehood, affectation, or forced endearment. In his work, he is guided by a sense of his own imperfection, as even with the objective value of his works, he cannot consider himself a master. He continuously searches, approaching the elusive, consistent with his profound nature. Manual labor offers him an ideal space with its unlimited possibilities for conceiving materials and creating, allowing the created object to reflect his personal holistic inner view.
Source: Mikolaj, Tomáš: Masters of the New Millennium [online]. Bratislava: Center of Folk Art Production, 2020 [accessed 2024-05-29]. Available at: https://uluv.sk/kniznica/digitalna-kniznica/.
In 2015, he was awarded the title of Master of Folk Artisanry in the field of woodcarving for his work.