In the past, Gemer had the highest concentration of pottery workshops and the most distinctive type of pottery products among Slovak pottery centers. Alongside agricultural work, almost every village in the area engaged in pottery production, involving a large portion of the population. This was mainly due to the rich presence of high-quality pottery and tile clay and good marketing opportunities, which historically oriented towards the south, making Gemer pottery products known throughout the former Hungary.

In such an environment, Ján Kováč was born in Šivetice in 1890, an old pottery center known for its unique pottery décor. Besides the black (smoked) ceramics, which Ján Kováč revived with the encouragement of ÚĽUV in the second half of the 1950s, what characterized Šivetice was the scratch-carved and painted pottery. Kováč actively started his production in 1903. He was one of the iconic potters associated with ÚĽUV, collaborating with the institution from its early days.

His work can be primarily characterized by the production of traditional tableware and the use of all local and regional decorative techniques and elements, which he further developed and enriched. He excelled in shaping substantial bowls, pitchers, vases, and flowerpots with a solid and balanced structure. Instead of using covering slip, he painted the ornament (exclusively geometric, mainly consisting of lines, interwoven with scallops or bands of droplets) directly on the clay with a horn. The decorative effect of his products was determined by the rhythm of lines of varying dynamics and their color harmony. He mostly used white and black colors, sometimes complemented by a green or blue band, and the final color impression was enhanced by uncovered strips of bright red terracotta. He covered the entire surface of his products with ornamentation, giving them a very decorative appearance. Before firing the smoked ceramics, he decorated them with geometric lines using a glaze pencil, giving the finished product a characteristic shine.

Kováč’s work was not uniquely individual but rather expressed the high artistic average of Gemer pottery. Nevertheless, it provided many inspirations and lessons for other potters and lovers of folk pottery. Its value lay in the correct use and application of traditional production and decorative techniques, in the confidence in painting with a horn and glazing with a glaze pencil, and in the sincere efforts to preserve the beauty of traditional Šivetice and Gemer pottery.

For these reasons, he was awarded the title of Master of Folk Artistic Production in Ceramics in 1959.