The place of Ernest Zmeták in the world of Slovak fine arts is a strange one, as proven by the epithets describing him: “the lonely runner of Slovak modernism”, “the last classic” and so forth. This is also due to his origin – he was born in Nové Zámky, on the border of Slovak and Hungarian languages. He wanted to study painting in Prague but after the annexation of southern Slovakia to Hungary in 1938 he decided on Budapest. Upon graduating in 1943, he returned to Slovakia where he tried to find his place within the field he studied – Monumental...