Edmund Gwerk was born on 15th February 1895 in Banská Štiavnica and died on 4th December 1956 in Bratislava. He studied at the grammar school in Banská Štiavnica, the University of Fine Arts in Budapest as well as the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague and art history at the Philosophical Faculty of the Comenius University in Bratislava. He has been to educational trips in Vienna, Munich, Berlin, Paris, Rome and Florence. In 1932-1938 Gwerk lived in Bratislava and after 1938 he lived and painted in Banská Štiavnica. He mainly painted portraits as well as figural and landscape works with the theme of his native town of Banská Štiavnica and its environs. He was an important representative of Slovak painting in the interwar period as well as after the WWII. In his early years, Gwerk developed his style of realistic portrait and landscape painting following the traditional spirit of Slovak academic painting. The decisive factor influencing his development as an artist, was orientation on expressionism. After mid 1920s, particularly under the influence of paintings by A. Jasusch, Gwerk deepens his philosophical and social feeling as well as the efforts to interpret this emotion in a robust and expressive gesture. The region of Banská Štiavnica, afflicted by poverty, is becoming a perpetual source of his mature painting expression. The images of rough monumental nature and figural compositions symbolise the stirring atmosphere of the times and express the character of the region with difficult living conditions. In the context of domestic artistic development, Gwerk’s work represents an important contribution to the socially-aware stream of painting. Gwerk took part in antifascist resistance as well as preparations of the Slovak National Uprising. He wrote many articles, lectures, made numerous daily journal entries and had an extensive correspondence. He paid much attention to preservation of historical sights in his native town of Banská Štiavnica. His paintings are owned by the Slovak National Gallery as well as galleries of numerous Slovak towns and cities. Edmund Gwerk held exhibitions in Banská Štiavnica, Banská Bystrica, Nove Zámky, Košice, Rimavská Sobota, Žilina, Martin and Nitra. Bibliography: Bakoš, Oliver: Edmund Gwerk : miesto svetonázoru v tvorbe Edmunda Gwerka. Bratislava ,Vydavateľstvo Slovenského fondu výtvarných umení, 1961. Boháč, F.: Edmund Gwerk - súborné dielo, 1918 - 1955. (Katalóg výstavy) Bratislava . Tvar , 1955.