88th Auction, lot 32 This painting entitled After Bath represents the work of one of the founders of Slovak modernism, Mikuláš Galanda. Without his essential contribution as an artist, art theorist, and teacher, we couldn’t imagine Slovak painting in the first half of the 20th century. Shortly after completing his studies at the Prague Academy at the end of the 1920s, he and his friend and former classmate Ľudovít Fulla went back to their homeland devoting themselves to informing the Slovak public not only of their own attitude to painting, but especially up-to-date news of contemporary European art. As early as during his studies in Prague, Galanda became acquainted with many modern Czech artists, such as members of the groups Osma, Tvrdošíjní, and Devětsil, and visited many of their exhibitions. The inspiration drawn from the artistic achievements of Czech modernism can be seen in the presented work After Bath. However, it was not only the personalities of Czech art and their work that interested Galanda in the final years of his studies at the Prague Academy. From the preserved drawing from 1927, which probably preceded the execution of the presented painting, (based on not only the similar composition, but above all the same title), we can identify foreign sources of inspiration such as Pablo Picasso and Amedeo Modigliani. Despite the fact that the female body is formed mainly by colour matter, the line is also noticeable here, which was an essential feature of Galanda’s works from the beginning and even became a basic vehicle of his expression in later years. The painting is published in black and white in the artist’s monograph (Z. Kostrová: Mikuláš Galanda, 2001 Piešťany, p. 136), presented in original framing, and comes from an important collection of Galanda’s friend. Assessed during consultations by prof. J. Zemina and Ing. M. Hodoš. The expertise by PhDr. K. Bajcurová, CSc, is attached.