View source for Martin Benka

[[File:Album representantů všech oborů veřejného života československého - 1927 - Martin Benka.png|thumb|200px|Martin Benka (1927)]]
'''Martin Benka''' (21 September 1888 in [[Kostolište]] – 28 June 1971 in [[Malacky]]) was a [[Slovaks|Slovakian]] painter, [[illustrator]], art teacher and [[Esperantist]]. He is generally considered to be the founder of [[Modernist]] 20th century Slovak painting.

==Biography==
He was the youngest of six children born to Jozef and Eva Benka, née Dubničkova.<ref name="S">[http://starymartin.sk/martinske-osobnosti-1-martin-benka/ Biography] @ ''Stary Martin''</ref> From 1903 to 1906, he was apprenticed as a house painter in [[Hodonín]], and served his journeyman years in Vienna from 1906 to 1909. During this time, he began paying visits to a private art studio. A journalist named Jan Josef Langner (1861-1919) saw his work and was sufficiently impressed to offer financial assistance. This enabled him to take lessons at a private landscape painting school in Prague, operated by [[Alois Kalvoda]].<ref name="N">[http://www.nedbalka.sk/stala-expozicia/zoznam-autorov/martin-benka Biography] @ the Galéria Nedbalka</ref>

He acquired his first studio in Prague in 1914. During [[World War I]], he lived with a friend in [[Miloňovice]]. His first independent exhibit was held in [[Rohatec]] in 1915. After the war, he returned to Prague, where he lived  until 1939. He became involved with the {{ill|Association of Slovak Artists|sk|Spolok slovenských umelcov}} in 1920, and travelled extensively. In 1937, he participated in the [[Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne]].<ref name="N" /> 

Shortly after the beginning of [[World War II]], he settled in [[Martin, Slovakia|Martin]]. From 1940 to 1941, he was a Professor of drawing and painting at the [[Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava]]. After the war he received the title "{{ill|National Artist of Czechoslovakia|cs|Národní umělec|lt=National Artist}}" from the [[Czechoslovak People's Republic]]. In 1958, he was provided with a country home, studio and gallery near Martin, at state expense. That same year his autobiography, ''Za umením'' (For Art), was published.<ref name="N" />

While visiting old friends in his home town, he fell ill and died at the hospital in Malacky.<ref name="S" /> He is buried in the [[National Cemetery in Martin]].<ref>[https://www.navstevnik.sk/detail-podujatia;jsessionid=CC81608739128166C2EF4FEB18343E3E?showId=1011294&lang=en National Cemetery] @ ''Nastevnik'', [[Czech Ministry of Culture]]</ref>

==Style and method ==
Benka's ornamental style, which was influenced by [[folk art]], contrasted sharply with the functional and purist approach of the German [[Bauhaus]] and [[Russian avant-garde]] movements of that time. A contemporary of the famous Czech generation of [[cubist]] artists, he lived in [[Prague]] for 30 years. Along with [[Ľudovít Fulla]], [[Mikuláš Galanda]], and the Czech {{ill|Jaroslav Vodrážka|cs|Jaroslav Vodrážka (grafik)}}, he created [[Modernist]] Slovak [[typography]]. Overall, he created between forty and sixty different [[fonts]].

While searching for characteristic features, [[form (visual art)|form]]s and colors of Slovakia, he would visit regions where people lived simply, in communion with nature. He would often travel around the countryside, documenting rural life and nature in his works, many of which he did outdoors and spontaneously. His home in the country, where he lived from 1959 to 1971, is now ''The Martin Benka Museum''<ref>[http://spectator.sme.sk/c/20024701/martin-benka-captivated-by-nature.html "Martin Benka: Captivated by Nature"] @ the ''[[Slovak Spectator]]''</ref> as outlined in his will, in which he bequeathed his works to the state.
[[File:Bratislava Snopek Ladislav plastika Martin Benka.jpg|thumb|200px|Statue of Benka by {{ill|Ladislav Snopek|cs}}, in [[Bratislava]] (2008)]]

==Notable paintings ==
{{cols}}
*''Rieka Orava'' (''The Orava River'')
*''Jeseň na Spiši'' (''Fall in Spiš'')
*''Dve ženy'' (''Two women'')
*[http://www.webumenia.sk/web/guest/detail/-/detail/id/SVK:SNG.O_676/ ''Na pole''] (''Into the Field'')
*''Drevári pod Ďumbierom'' (''Woodcutters below Ďumbier Mountain'')
*[http://www.webumenia.sk/web/guest/detail/-/detail/id/SVK:SNG.O_1/ ''Po búrke''] (''After the storm'')
{{colend}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Anna Longauer and Lubomir Olahova, ''Martin Benka: the first designer of the Slovak national myth'', Slovart (2008) {{ISBN|978-80-80855-74-1}}

==External links==
{{commons category|Martin Benka}}
* [http://www.webumenia.sk/katalog?author=Benka%2C+Martin Collection of works by Benka] @ Webumania


{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Benka, Martin}}
[[Category:1888 births]]
[[Category:1971 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Malacky District]]
[[Category:20th-century Slovak painters]]
[[Category:Slovak modern painters]]
[[Category:Burials at National Cemetery in Martin]]
[[Category:20th-century Slovak illustrators]]
[[Category:Slovak art educators]]