Rudolf Fila

The painter who overpainted Klimt — and who for three decades shaped the Bratislava Secondary School of Applied Arts. Born in Moravian Příbram, he passed through the School of Applied Arts in Brno under Bohdan Lacina and in 1952 – 1958 the Academy of Fine Arts in Bratislava in Ján Mudroch's studio; his diploma work Harvest won the prize for painting. From 1960 he taught for thirty years at the Bratislava school of applied arts, and in 1990 – 1992 he headed the studio of free painting at the Academy.

In the 1960s he was among the most important representatives of abstract painting in Slovakia — a member of the Brno group Parabola and of the Bratislava Confrontations; internationally he became known for his overpaintings and quotations of the old masters. His works are in the Slovak National Gallery, the National Gallery in Prague, the Museum of the 20th Century in Vienna and the Credit Suisse collection in London; he published the books On the Way (2003) and, with his wife Dorota, Metamorphoses: Copies, Quotations, Overpaintings (2005).