2023Easter - Slovak Folk Woodcarving - First Day Cover

The paths that lead artists to naive art are diverse, they can be direct or complex. However, what they have in common is that the artist has a spontaneous need to portray the world around them, their dreams and visions, regardless of the universally recognised means of artistic expression. Štefan Siváň senior (1906 – 1995) began his artistic career carving crib figures. They were part of the portable cribs he carried when, as a young man, he went carol-singing over the Christmas and New Year festivities in Slovakia, Moravia and Silesia. He lived his whole life in the village of Babín, in the Horná Orava region. He gradually created a miscellaneous collection of art, both in terms of its topics and means of expression. Today he is considered to be one of the most significant Slovak naive wood carvers and his works of art are also important within the European naive art scene.