Ján Grotkovský

A painter who sold goods until his fifties — while forging a landscape idiom of his own: born in Ruský Kazimír, he took his first lessons from Dezider Orosz and privately from Elemér Halász-Hradil, working as a sales representative until 1950 before devoting himself fully to painting. His economical landscapes, from the High Tatras to the East Slovak Lowland, live on broken colour and silvery light; he held solo shows in Žilina (1938) and Prešov (1960), and 47 of his works are catalogued today by the Slovak National Gallery's Web umenia. With six paintings he is one of the pillars of our Tatra collection.