The collection of works of wood and wooden toys originated immediately after the founding of the Cabinet of Applied Art and Industrial Arts in 1961. Its core was developed in the 1960s, but afterwards the collection was supplemented only sporadically. This can be related to the fact that the quality of the work of Václav Kautman, the master of the Slovak applied art in wood, was not surpassed by any other artist until the end of the 1980s. The collection contains a relatively extensive selection of his work from the end of the 1950s until the beginning of the 1970s. His small applied artwork (boxes, ashtrays, bowls, tableware) and the works of a figurative character, decorative sculptures of fish, birds, several parts of Torsos and small commemorative or gift items, such as prototypes that he prepared for the ZOO are also represented. It documents the development of the artist’s artistic opinions from the mimetic figurative depictions of the theme all the way to the position of abstraction – sign, which is represented by the Black Fish from 1960. A relatively extensive set of pieces of Stanislav Koreň, particularly tableware for cold food made on a lathe and simple candle holders are also represented in the collection. The collection was complemented in the 1980s by his decorative interior sculptures. In 1989, the collection acquired an extensive collection containing a selection of work by Viktor Holešťák-Holubár. It charts the development of his work in all areas of applied art in which he worked from 1948: furniture design, textile design, interiors, the exhibition industry, graphic design, poster, wood and metal. From 1979 to 1985, the Department of Applied Art and Industrial Arts acquired several works from the exhibition presentations of free art artists. Sets of original wooden toys by Vladimír Kompánek, Alojz Klima, Marián Huba and Katarína Kissoczyová were also added.

Curator of the Wood Collection: Viera Kleinová