Martin Benka (Slovak-English Book about the Slovak Painter)

Publication about Martin Benka, one of the founders of the modern Slovak painting art. Text is written by Katarina Bajcurova, the director of the Slovak National Gallery, both in Slovak and English languages. Unfortunately, the book is outsold.

There are more than 300 reproductions, biographical data, photographs, list of exhibitions and expositions, list of reproductions.

Although the image of Slovak world and man in Benka's rendition has rooted well in the national awareness of Slovaks, in the past few years it has been oddly confined, almost conserved" within the walls of the permanent exhibitions and in-store-depositories of museums and galleries, occasional shows, now-and-then speaking from the textbooks and readers` pages as a classical value, but already known, explained long time ago, the one conveying nothing new to either the professionals or the laymen.

Though the art has also the power to resurge, emerge from depths of oblivion and to speak up, impress, move... It may sound as a paradox and for the supporters of art history cultivated in an ivory tower also as a sort of blasphemy, but let us openly admit that the revived interest in

Benka is owing to a market. One could have assumed that Benka and his work would vanish in the cosmopolitanism, to which our art gave in following a general trend of decline of interest in history as such and in stressing the current, now-lived aspects of art... Fortunately, it has not happened. Instead, something entirely different started to happen in connection with the world of Martin Benka, something only seemingly unexpected. Hand in hand with emerging art market it has become one of the most serious and sought after objects of art collecting and, for very practical reasons, a guarantee, a securely deposited financial capital. /Does one need/ a better proof of artistic quality? The prices of Benka's works auctioned-off at domestic and also Czech art auctions started to skyrocket, break unthinkable records. Benka scored No.1 among the representatives of Slovak Modern of the 20`" century...

(From the book Martin Benka)