Lea Mrázová — Tatiana and Woman with a Lute

Lea Mrázová (November 8, 1906 Moštenica, district of Banská Bystrica – January 11, 1995 Bratislava)
She studied at a girls’ grammar school in Banská Bystrica and then at Charles University in Prague. She finished her studies at Comenius University in Bratislava (majoring in philosophy) while attending Gustáv Mallý’s private painting school. The artist would improve he painting and foreign language skills by travelling across Europe. She translated French and Polish literature and also worked for the Živena magazine (1930-1939). In Martin, she worked on recording the history of Slovak women and published several studies on the topic. In 1937, she began shifting her focus towards painting – she studied at the Ukrainian Academy in Prague. A year later, she held a solo exhibition in Bratislava. After her move to Bratislava, she began working as a freelance artist. She painted still life, landscapes, but specialised in portraits. Her portraits have a very emotional feel to them. In 1947, she went on a study trip to Paris where she attended the Academy of Fine Arts (Académie des Beaux Arts). She created several portraits after her return. Her models were actors, singers, musicians and writers (e.g. A. Moyzes, E. Suchoň, M. Figuli, J. Poničan, Z.Grúberová, E. Kristínová and others). Besides portraits, she also worked on monumental projects and she was one of the first ones in Slovakia to adopt the technique of “Art Protis”. She also enriched her catalogue with her period “female” perception of nudes. She would use daring colour schemes to broaden the iconography of motherhood and womanhood of the 20th century. Besides her national efforts, she also managed to exhibit abroad (e.g. Zagreb, Belgrade, Bucharest, Venice). She is classified as a member of the “Generation 1909”. She was a member of the 29th August Artists Group. She was regularly published in newspapers. 

From 1950 to 1951, she worked as a part-time lecturer in the history of French literature at the Faculty of Arts at the Slovak University in Bratislava (today’s Comenius University). Besides working as an editor and painter, she also wrote. She authored several reviews, studies, feuilletons and articles. Besides the Živena magazine, she also worked with Slovenské pohľady [Slovak Views], Národné noviny [National Newspaper], Elán [Vigour], Nová žena [Modern Woman].

V rokoch 1950 – 1951 pôsobila ako externá lektorka dejín francúzskej literatúry na Filozofickej fakulte Slovenskej univerzity v Bratislave (dnes Univerzita Komenského). Popri činnosti redaktorky a maliarky sa L. M. venovala aj autorskej tvorbe. Je autorkou niekoľkých recenzií, štúdií, fejtónov i článkov. Okrem Živeny spolupracovala takisto so Slovenskými pohľadmi, Národnými novinami, Elánom, Novej žene. Recenzie o činoherných inscenáciách Slovenského národného divadla uverejňovala v časopisoch Elán a Nová žena. Recenzie boli často doplnené jej ilustráciami k daným predstaveniam.