Academic painter Pavel Bley was born on 24 May 1930 in Prievidza into the family of a hatter — Jozef Bley — as the sixth of nine children. In the interwar period, his father Jozef Bley was involved in civic association activities as a representative of the Czechoslovak Eagle organisation in the Upper Nitra County. His wife Júlia was also active in the association, primarily as an amateur theatre actress. Both parents served as models for Pavel when he created the curtain for the Prievidza theatre.

During the Second World War, Jozef Bley was imprisoned in Ilava prison as early as 1942 for his anti-fascist stance. At the age of 15, Pavel helped run the family business — a restaurant and tobacconist’s at the site of the later Zobor pub. During the war, his older brothers Jozef and Rudolf used a copying machine intended for printing menus at the railway restaurant to print leaflets. In early summer of 1944, they joined the Slovak National Uprising. His brother Jozef was captured and executed by the Gestapo on 29 January 1945. His mutilated body, bearing signs of torture, was not found until the summer of 1945 in the collapsed tunnels of the ammunition depots in Zemianske Kostoľany. His brother Rudolf perished in the last German prisoner transport to the Mauthausen concentration camp.

Pavel Bley studied from 1951 to 1956 at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava, in the department of compositional figurative painting under Professor J. Želibský. He devoted himself to monumental-decorative painting for architecture, applied graphics and artistic photography. His first wife was photographer Oľga Bleyová, and their daughter is artist and photographer Dana Bleyová (1954).

Pavel Bley died on 4 January 2011 in Bratislava.

He is the author and creator of the Slovak National Uprising memorial in Prievidza on Banská Street.

P. Bley’s sgrafitos on the Píly housing estate are located on Svätoplukova / Duklianska, Krajná, Björnsona, Björnsona / D. Kubíka, D. Krmana, Sama Chalupku, Benického and Štefánikova streets.

Works by P. Bley on the Píly housing estate:

Svätoplukova / Duklianska 2: figurative sgrafito Fruit Picking (spanning the height of 2 storeys).

Krajná 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, west façade, miners’ apartment block: sgrafito in rectangular panels of a 3-part broken attic (only partially preserved); sgrafito with an animal motif in rectangular panels of the 3-part roof attic at the centre of the block with a passage (only 1 panel preserved).

East façade: sgrafito in rectangular panels of a stepped roof attic.

Björnsona 22, 24, Štefánikova 14–22: stylised plant motifs in rectangular panels at the tops of pilasters…

Björnsona: relief — a female figure on the façade of the corner section.

Štefánikova 32–38, D. Krmana 1, Sama Chalupku 25–29: 2 rectangular panels with a mushroom motif…

Benického Street: figurative sgrafito with fairy-tale motifs in 3 panels.

Štefánikova Street, end of street from S. Chalupku Street: 2 figurative sgrafitos spanning all floors.

Štefánikova: 2 × horse mask motif, dog, cat, cow mask, walking goat, insect.

Björnsona / D. Kubíka: girl with grapes in a yellow panel + apple, girl with grapes + pear.

Svätoplukova: witch with a cat, goat with a fox, princess with doves, fox with a rooster.