Mikuláš Galanda

Co-author of the only manifesto of Slovak modernism and its most striking pioneer. Born in Turčianske Teplice, he began studying painting at the Budapest Academy in 1914, but the war cut his studies short; in Prague he passed through the School of Applied Arts under V. H. Brunner and the Academy under August Brömse and Franz Thiele. From 1929 he taught in Bratislava, where he shared a studio with Ľudovít Fulla and published with him the Private Letters of Fulla and Galanda in 1930 – 1932; in 1933 he became a professor at the School of Arts and Crafts.

His mothers, outlaws and lyrical female figures fused the lessons of Cubism and Expressionism with home-grown subjects; as the first graphic editor of the review DAV and a co-founder of modern Slovak book illustration, he won a silver medal at the 1937 Paris World's Fair. He died suddenly at the age of forty-three; he is buried in the National Cemetery in Martin, and his birthplace in Turčianske Teplice has housed a permanent exhibition of his work since 1991.