Ján Mudroch

The first rector of the Academy of Fine Arts and a painter whose wartime canvases rank among the peaks of Slovak modernism. Born in Sotina near Senica, he studied with Gustáv Mallý in Bratislava, with Arnošt Hofbauer in Prague and in 1931 – 1937 at the Prague Academy under Jakub Obrovský and Willi Nowak, where he became one of the leading figures of the Generation of 1909. Back home he taught at the Bratislava School of Arts and Crafts, in 1945 he co-founded the Group of Fine Artists of 29 August, and in 1950 – 1952 he headed the newly founded Academy of Fine Arts as its first rector; he also took part in creating the Slovak National Gallery.

From socially engaged, sombre pictures (The Murdered Poet, Catastrophe) he moved through an affinity with Surrealism to the poetic realism of motherhood and flower still lifes. He was named Meritorious Artist and, in 1968, National Artist in memoriam; his works are held by the Slovak National Gallery, the National Gallery in Prague and the East Slovak Museum in Košice.