František Guldan

František Guldan is a visual artist working in small-format painting, illustration, mosaic, installation, relief, welded sculpture and cultural journalism. He was born in 1953. He graduated from the Faculty of Civil Engineering of the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava. Under socialism he worked as a designer of building renovations at the Bratislava Construction Company and moved in dissident circles among artists, conservationists, architects, sociologists and heritage preservationists. Since 1978 he has held numerous exhibitions at home and abroad.

During the totalitarian era he exhibited his works in Bratislava's pedestrian underpasses, and several of his illegal exhibitions were shut down prematurely. During the revolution he was a member of the coordinating centre of Public Against Violence (VPN) and an editor of the newspaper Verejnosť. From January to June 1990 he was entrusted with running the Slovak National Gallery, and later headed its technical department. Since 1991 he has worked as a freelance artist and journalist. In his work he has had the courage to put himself on the line and to speak out on socially important issues.

František Guldan is known as the author of sculptural works at the Chatam Sofer Memorial; he created the Monument to Unborn Children by the Blue Church and the cross at the site where Robert Remiáš was murdered, and on his own initiative he installed a stone Tribute to Karel Kryl on Freedom Square in Bratislava. In 2018 he installed the object Diagnóza 1968 – 2018 (Diagnosis 1968 – 2018) on Primate's Square in the centre of Bratislava, drawing attention to the criminal communist past, which has remained unresolved even after decades of democratic society. As an artist and civic activist, he also devotes himself to helping people with disabilities.