In his work, Ján Hála, the court painter of life under the Tatras, presents his unique relationship to the country and to the life of ordinary people from below the Tatras in an unmistakable style. Even being born in a small South Bohemian village, the author spent most of his life in the village of Važec below the Tatras, and his love for this region influenced his work as well. His authorial presentation is dominated by respect for the majestic peaks, but at the same time he emotionally approaches all the sorrows and joys experienced by the people of his time. Among his works we can find landscape paintings of the ridges of the High Tatras and iconography of the life of the Tatra people.

The author of the monograph, Marián Kvasnička, is also the curator of the exhibition of Ján Hála, the collection of which has more than 50 artist’s paintings supplemented by the artist’s personal diary or publications published during his life. Enjoy the experience from the artist’s most comprehensive collection of paintings also through this monograph.

A set of two publications was created from the exhibition cycle OLD SLOVAKIA IN THE NEW WORLD – Slovak Story in Painting and The Story of Slovak Landscape Painting.

The publication Slovak Story in Painting accompanies works focused on the figurative and ethnographic form of what is already considered archaic. The central theme of the works is folklore, traditions, the importance of family, people, work or material culture of the countryside. The monograph is a pictorial journey through individual epochs in the history of our cultural and spiritual space. Among the authors of the works we can find names such as Jozef Teodor Mousson, Gustáv Mallý, Ján Hála, Jaroslav Augusta, Ľudovít Križan, the Hložník brothers, Milan Laluha, Vladimír Kompánek and many others.

The publication The Story of Slovak Landscape Painting accompanies the genre and shape modifications of the works of our landscape painting, which stylistic changes reflect the dynamics of our native homeland. The monograph is a pictorial journey through individual periods from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries to the present. The collection includes works by authors such as Ladislav Medňanský, Ľudovít Csordák, Janko Alexy, Jozef Kollár, Edmund Gwerk, Mária Medvecká, Rudolf Moško and many others.

The monograph focuses on two key personalities of the Galanda family – Milan Laluha and Vladimír Kompánek, who followed the tradition of Slovak modernism of the first half of the 20th century.

Milan Laluha’s work was largely inspired by his childhood, which he spent in Dolná Mičina. His works repeat motifs such as villages, trees, houses, still life, women and men. His typical artistic pattern is a characteristic feature. In addition to sculpture, academic sculptor Vladimír Kompánek also devoted himself to fine art. In all his work, there are mainly motifs of the domestic Slovak environment, countryside and folk architecture.

The publication contains a selection of works by both important artists from the collection of the Lomnica Gallery, which complements the artistic and historical evaluation of the curator of the gallery and the author of the publication Marián Kvasnička. The publication also includes a selection of texts by Vladimír Kompánek and an interview with Milan Laluha. The individual works are supplemented with poems by Ľubomír Feldek and Milan Rúfus.

The work of Mária Medvecká is closely related to her native Orava. As part of her works, she presents herself as a chronicler of Orava and its people, focusing from early times on the reflection of the difficult life in which she herself grew up.

The monograph attempts to take a deeper look at her life and artistic legacy by consistently reconstructing her biographical profile. The author of the publication, Marián Kvasnička, uses commemorative material obtained from family and loved ones. The author also focused on the analysis of the period-determined evaluations of the author’s contribution into Slovak post-war painting, enriched with his own artistic and historical perspective. The publication also presents the reproductions of paintings by Mária Medvecká, which are part of the exhibition of the Lomnica Gallery. The monograph is complemented by lyrical and epic texts by Orava writers as well as memories of close people, including the Feldek family, who belonged to the narrower circle of the painter’s friends.

The publication is a pictorial guide to the collection exhibited at the Lomnica Hotel during 2017, in which we find works by authors from the period of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, the first Czechoslovak Republic to post-war modernism. It includes a catalogue of works with a basic professional description and a list of all exhibited works with an artistic and historical evaluation by the curator of the Lomnica Gallery and the author of the publication Marián Kvasnička. The publication is a detailed list of all works exhibited not only in gallery halls but also in common areas from reception, restaurants, corridors to the works in individual rooms.

It is the most detailed summary of the complete collection, in which we can find a rich representation of works by authors such as Ladislav Medňanský, Ján Hála, Dominik Skutecký, Vincent and Ferdinand Hložník, Milan Laluha, Vladimír Kompánek and Mária Medvecká. The collection is supplemented by works of authors as Anton Jasusch, Martin Benka, Janko Alexy and many others.