THE PAINTER, collector Zmeták.photo: Zuzana Habšudová
ONE of Slovakia's foremost modernist artists, painter and graphic artist Ernest Zmeták, passed away on May 13 at the age of 85 after battling a long-term disease.
Zmeták, who was born in 1919 in the southern Slovak town of Nové Zámky, devoted his entire life to art.
He studied the legacy of 14th century Italian painting in Budapest in the class of Vilmos Aba-Novák, and in Slovakia he joined the modernist movement of Ľudovít Fulla. As a graphic artist, Zmeták illustrated several books. After a study trip to Italy he created a number of mosaic works, such as the one on the tympanum of the Primate's Palace in Bratislava. He studied and worked in Italy, Greece, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Iraq, and his home country. His paintings, in which he often captured Italy - where he regularly returned after 1946 - can be found in private collections around the world.
Known also for his admiration of other artists, Zmeták collected many works, which he and his wife Danica later dedicated to Nové Zámky. The extensive collection from the 18th to the 20th century has an overall value of tens of millions of Slovak crowns, and is currently being re-installed in a new exhibition space.
