Melodies of Detva

We present today's work thanks to the Slovak National Museum (Museum of History in Bratislava and Slovak National Museum – Martin Benka Museum). In the Slovak National Museum until December 2019 you can visit an exhibition dedicated to the 130th birth anniversary of Martin Benka (1888–1971), an important painter of Slovak art modernism. In his painting, he conceived important starting points for modern Slovak art. The scholarly literature rightly assigns him the primacy among the painters who sought to look for colors and shapes typical of Slovakia. The impressive image of the Slovak national myth, which the artist created, had a starting point in the mountainous regions of Slovakia, where in the 1920s and 1930s he found the archaic world unbroken by civilization—a man in unity with nature.

In addition to painting, the artist also devoted himself to graphic design, illustrations, and collaborated with architects on the visualization of architecture. The first design for architecture at the beginning of the 1930s was drawing patterns for etched glass created for the modern, functionalist Colonnade Bridge in Piešťany by Slovak architect Emil Belluš. Benka drew four patterns with themes from Slovak mountain areas (Melodies of Detva, Čičmany, Liptov embroidery, and Vajnory paintresses), two of which were etched on glass sheets and their copies decorate the Piešťany Bridge even today. The artist, in the designs that are part of the exhibition, simplified the drawing while emphasizing the basic outline lines. The drawings are dominated by figures, harmoniously set in a hilly landscape.

- Monika Váleková

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