The idea of creating a new sculptural work for the historic park of the Strážky Manor House—one that would naturally resonate with the genius loci, the surrounding landscape, and the artistic legacy of Ladislav Mednyánszky—was conceived in January 2022. Designed by Slovak sculptor Juraj Gábor in curatorial collaboration with Lucia Gregorová Stach and Dušan Buran, the concept combined three distinct worlds from the very beginning: a specific location, painting,and sculptural experience. With the support of the Tatra banka Foundation, the Slovak National Gallery provided the artist with the necessary conditions to bring his vision to life, supplying the material that ultimately formed the core of the project. The creative process itself spanned an unusually long period—from 2022 through to mid-September 2026.
Throughout this period, the sculpting work extended beyond mere preparation; it gradually became an integral part of life at the manor house and its park, particularly during the spring and summer months. Visitors were able to observe Juraj Gábor directly at work, watching the gradual unveiling of form and the transformation of pristine white stone into the depiction of a nude human figure, almost pulsating with life. Rather than being created out of sight, the sculpture took shape in full view of the audience, right on the site where it now permanently resides. The result of this physically and mentally demanding labor is a traditionally, almost archaically resonant figural composition crafted from rare Carrara marble. It depicts a male nude, which the artist has titled River Observer. 
Although the final form of the creation is a sculpture, painting remains embedded within its genetic code—and not merely painting, but a distinctive way of painterly seeing closely aligned with landscape observation. The figure of the young man in white marble, set directly upon the lawn, becomes both a part of the landscape and its observer.
The sculptor drew subtle inspiration from Mednyánszky's painting Hornád (Detail of a Forest with a Nude), dated to approximately 1896 (Hungarian National Museum, Budapest). Much like Mednyánszky, Gábor allows the human figure to enter the realm of nature in such a way that the boundary between body and landscape begins to dissolve. While the young man observes the Poprad River, the park, and the surrounding world, he is simultaneously the subject of art—and the one being observed. This interplay suggests the presence of multiple, at first glance invisible, references within the sculpture to Gábor's monumental land-art installation Sight Pyramid (2015–2020, Súľov), in which he embodied the ray of sight while preserving the mystery of human vision.
River Observer can thus be perceived as a quiet continuation of Mednyánszky's gaze upon the landscape—a view in which nature is not merely a backdrop to the human story, but its equal partner. After more than a century, the motif of the figure in the landscape returns to Strážky through a different medium and material. What once originated on canvas as a fleeting moment of vision now acquires the substance, volume, and weight of stone. The young man stands in the grass,facing the river. Yet his stillness is not inactivity. It is concentration, waiting, and observation—an extraordinary state of contemplation in the here and now.
Vladimíra Büngerová
The SNG and Juraj Gábor express their gratitude to Tatra banka for supporting this project.
