LV100
Ladislav Vychodil

Ladislav Vychodil (1920 — 2005) formed the history of modern Czechoslovak scenography designing hundreds of theatre productions while also teaching at the Department of Stage Design of the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava.

Ladislav Vychodil with the model box for the production Švejk in WWII. (A photograph from the family archives of Mária Hrankovičová)

He was born in Moravia one day before the first première of the Slovak National Theatre where he heled the position of the chief of stage design twenty-five years later. Vychodil significantly contributed to the construction and operation of the Workshops of the Slovak National Theatre, and they are well respected even abroad.

Vítězslav Nezval: Atlantis, 1961, Slovak National Theatre, direction: Tibor Rakovský (Archives of the family of Ladislava Vychodila)

The exhibition at Slovak National Gallery presents Vychodil’s work through artistic principles that dominated his scenography throughout his whole career. Some of the renderings will be presented to the public for the first time. Throughout his career he designed over 530 productions, but his most famous design was for the production called Atlantis.

Photograph from the LV100 exhibition opening. SNG, Juraj Starovecký

Thus we have concentrated on the artistic autonomy of the works in the gallery environment. Their original theatre function is echoed by citations of the key elements – visual and architectural principles of the most renowned productions.

Learn more about the exhibition