Ladislav Čemický belongs to the Generation 1909, also labelled as “Consciousness of the Era” although his early talent was not shaped in Prague but in the connection to Hungarian academic niveau. He was born in 1909 in Čemice and died in 2000 in Stupava. His first contacts with landscape painting of his native Liptov region came through painter Zolo Palugyay. In 1929 – 1934 he studied at the University of Fine Arts in Budapest, in the class of professor Csóka. In 1950 – 1976 he worked as a pedagogue at the University of Fine Arts in Bratislava and after 1964 as a regular professor. He was awarded the title of National Artist in 1975. In the 1930s, he went to several scholarships and stayed and studied in Western Europe. The most influential was his stay in Paris in 1935 – 1936 and later in 1938, where he also met Pablo Picasso and other artists of the so-called Paris school. His stay in Paris also influenced the themes of his works, which included civilism and interest in social topics (unemployment, fascism, war, urban periphery). This period also represents the peak of his work, with accentuated social appeal in his paintings. His favourite topics included workers, the legend of the death of Jánošík, portraits of leading Slovak cultural personalities and is friends, which emanate his ability of psychological introspection and empathy. He consistently also worked on landscapes from central Slovakia and Liptov region. In the post-war period, landscapes dominate (cycles of watercolour paintings) as well as genre compositions and official portraits. After the war, he was a founding member and the first Chairman of the National Head Office of the Association of Czechoslovak Fine Artists. Another important stimulus for his work was the stay in the art colony of Janko Alexy in Piešťany. Joint painting with Zoltán Palugyay had an important influence on his life-long work in watercolour lyrical landscape painting. Until this day, Čemický is regarded as one of the fathers of the Slovak modern watercolour painting, which has more emotional than strictly documentarist parameters. Bibliography: Encyklopédia Slovenska, I. zväzok, Veda, vydavateľstvo SAV, 1977; Slovensko, Kultúra – I. časť, Obzor – Bratislava, 1979; Tilkovský, V.: Ladislav Čemický. Bratislava 1962; Abelovský, J.: Ladislav Čemický. Dielo rokov 1926 – 1948. Kat. výst. Liptovský Mikuláš, Galéria P. M. Bohúňa 1989.