He and Sea Beach - Mikulas Galanda Samsung Case

Mikuláš Galanda (1895–1938) painted through pain, against politics, and toward a new Slovak modernism. Born in Malá Vieska, he lost a leg to illness in his youth—an early rupture that infused his later work with melancholy and resolve. Trained in Budapest and Prague, he fused expressionism, cubism, and lyrical figuration, layering Slovak folk subjects with the avant-garde grammar of European modernism.

Galanda was no ivory tower aesthete. He co-edited DAV, taught at Bratislava’s School of Handcrafts, and collaborated with Ľudovít Fulla on polemical “Private Letters” championing art’s social function. His work, often focused on women and rural life, vibrates with restrained longing—his clean lines and flat planes echo both folk iconography and Bauhaus-era design.

He exhibited widely—from the Venice Biennale to the 1937 Paris Exposition, where he won a Silver Medal—and stood firm against fascism, signing the “Forever Faithful” manifesto in 1938. Galanda died the same year, aged just 43, but left behind a legacy that helped define the emotional and political contours of Slovak modern art.