Toyen’s Dream Has Flown All the Way to Budapest

The Pudil Family Foundation has put on loan from its collection Toyen’s painting Dream (1937) for the retrospective exhibition Shadow on Stone – The Art of Lili Ország (1926-1978) in the Hungarian National Gallery in Budapest. The Hungarian surrealist artist Lili Ország drew inspiration from Giorgio de Chirico and Paul Devaux, as well as from her Czech artistic forerunner Marie Čermínová, known under the pseudonym Toyen.

Both Toyen and Lili Ország had a strong sense of composition, used mineral and organic elements, painted in intense deep colours and preferred night settings. Ország’s paintings and collages transport us to the universe of Toyen – it is impossible to overlook the parallels between Ország’s Pink Dress (1956) and Toyen’s Dream (1937). Through their pseudonyms the two artists found new free identities; through their paintings both revealed to us their most secret inner worlds.

You can read more about the influence of Toyen on Lili Ország in an article here by Christelle Havranek, curator of Kunsthalle Praha. The exhibition Shadow on Stone – The Art of Lili Ország (1926-1978) can be viewed in the Hungarian National Gallery in Budapest until 1 May 2017.

Toyen - Dream, 1937, oil on canvas, 81 x 100 cm

Lili Ország - Pink Dress, 1956, oil on canvas, 39,5 x 30,5 cm, Kolozsváry - gyűjtemény Collection

Lili Ország - Anxiety, 1955, oil on canvas, 66 x 45 cm, Kolozsváry Collection

Lili Ország - Woman with veil, 1955, oil on canvas, 35 x 40 cm, Antal - Lusztig Collection

Lili Ország - Self-portrait, 1955, oil on canvas, 35 x 56 cm, Collection of Szent István Museum, Székesfehérvár

Lili Ország - Corpus, 1959, oil on fibreboard, 87 x 50 cm, Kolozsváry Collection

Lili Ország - Mannequins, 1955, oil on paper, 35 x 50 cm, Antal - Lusztig Collection

The Pudil Family Foundation is an open non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the understanding and appreciation of Czech and international modern and contemporary art through the realization of innovative exhibitions, research and educational projects.

For more information regarding the Foundation and our projects, visit www.pudilfamilyfoundation.org.