Girl in White with Factory Chimneys and Flowers

In the first decades of the 20th-century, industrial buildings of various kinds gradually penetrated the Slovak rural landscape. They were still quite rare at this time, but they started to visually dominate the environment. The paradox of two coexisting civilizations, archaic and modern, was clearly realized by Zolo Palugyay when he placed the popular poetic-symbolic theme of Slovak modernism, a girl with a jug,  against the backdrop of factory chimneys. The calm profile of a sitting girl, a kind of fairy-tale white being, is contrasted by the bending curves of factory chimneys emitting white smoke. The scene is closed by the traditional silhouette of the Tatra peaks. A remarkable contrast;  a symbolic virgin chased by factory smoke.

This artwork is featured as a part of our collaboration with Europeana, Europe’s platform for cultural heritage. Their project Europe at Work shares the story of Europe through our working lives in the past and the present.

P.S. Read here how industrial buildings inspired artists on the example of Ford River Rouge Complex.