Lili Ország

Lili Ország
Born	Lili Ország (1926-08-08)8 August 1926 Ungvár
Died	1 October 1978(1978-10-01) (aged 52) Budapest, Hungary
Movement	Surrealism

Lili Ország (born as Oesterreicher) 8 August 1926 – 1 October 1978) was a Hungarian painter.

Her life

In 1937, she decided to become a painter, learning to draw from Miklós Rosenberg. She made charcoal drawings, still lifes, and sculptures. She spent the summer with her grandmother in Venice. Her doctor uncle was involved in mysticism, which had a great influence on her. In 1944, she graduated in Ungvár, in addition to Hungarian, he spoke and read Czech, Slovak, German, English, Italian and Hebrew.

In 1945, she was admitted to the College of Fine Arts, where, along with her teachers (István Szőnyi, Róbert Berény, Lajos Szentiványi), she became friends with János Pilinszky. She changed her maiden name to Ország on January 22, 1948.

After leaving college, she worked at the State Puppet Theater as a set painter from 1950 to 1954. On May 20, 1950, she married György Majláth, a special education teacher. She spent the summer of 1956 in Bulgaria, and her painting was greatly influenced by the Slavic icons.

Between 1954 and 1960 she was unemployed. During this period she illustrated children's magazines, storybooks, youth novels, and created puppet and set designs. From 1960 until her death, she was the set and costume designer of the State Puppet Theater and the head of the painting workshop. She worked with Vera Bródy and Iván Koós. Here she made contact with the artists of the European School, Dezső Korniss, József Jakovits, Anna Márkus, and in 1953, Endre Bálint, who was considered her master.

Between 1968 and 1974, she visited Naples and Pompeii several times, where she found the myth close to his pictorial world.

In June 1978, she moved to a new studio apartment in Budapest. She died there on October 1.

Her art

Her early works were mainly watercolor paintings reflecting Szőnyi's influence (Baromfiudvar, 1948; Village Cemetery, 1949).

Between 1952 and 1957, she painted surrealist pictures reflecting the influence of René Magritte and Giorgio de Chirico (Girl in front of a wall, 1955; Anxiety, 1955; Woman in front of a wall, 1956). As a preliminary study for these works, she made several paper collages. This method accompanied her entire painting oeuvre.

Between 1957 and 1959, influenced by her trip to Bulgaria, she painted the so-called her iconic pictures and her pictorial world brought the art of Lili Ország closer to Lajos Vajda and his circle, which, with their colorful, transcendent radiation, led us from surrealist works with realistic depictions to a pictorial world with a strict, constructive space, whose main themes were cityscapes, floor plans, and city walls. In these works, there is a conscious and clear way of perpetuating the memories of the past, ancient cities as mementos (Wall of Jerusalem, 1966; Persepolis, 1965; Requiem on seven tablets in memory of destroyed cities and people, 1963).

After her trip to Prague in 1962, inspired by the tombstone of the Jewish cemetery, the stylized Hebrew writings became the central motif of her paintings, which appeared on the time-worn stones of her pictures sometimes with sharply outlined concreteness, sometimes with fine, meticulous plasticity, with a barely perceptible blur (Exodus, 1963; Writing on the wall, 1967; Prayer for the Dead, 1967).

Between 1973 and 1978, she painted her main work, the Labyrinth series of 48 panel paintings, in which she depicts the experience of ancient myth in the present, the timelessness of history and art, using previously developed painting tools and motifs.

Instead of visual painting, her interest turned towards metaphysically inspired surrealism. However, her unique non-figurative art lacks the possibility of absurd associations. Her recurring motifs are the ancient, historical past, the material and spiritual remains and fragments of past cultures, ruined cities that have become defunct, evoking a bright past, and walls evoking confinement, loneliness, and fear.

Her famous works

• 1952 - Kóró
• 1955 - Woman in black in front of the factory, Little girl in front of a wall, Earth and Moon
• 1956 - Woman in front of the wall, Street in the castle, Woman in white, Altar, Bethlehem, Corpus, Pietà, Saint George, Veronica's shawl
• 1957 - Orthopedic shoes, Memento
• 1959 - Prison and Altar, Tombstone Monotypes, Tower of Babel
• 1962 - The walls of Jerusalem
• 1963 - Requiem, (7 panels)
• 1965 - City from the Age of Kings, Sabbath
• 1965 - Metropolis, Heliopolis, Persepolis, Hanging Gardens, Winged Gate
• 1966 - XX. century fresco, The birth of writing, Catacombs, Columns
• 1967 - De profundis, Lamentation, Palace Wing, Petrified Complaint, Writing on the Wall
• 1968 - Wall of Pompeii, Triptych with Coptic letters, Present past, Glass windows of the cathedral
• 1969 - Romanian Christ, Icon-wall compositions, Roman wall series, The metamorphosis of writing, Labyrinth, Cry, Pages of history, Laughing Byzantium
• 1970 - Roman heads, Icon wall, White picture, Papyrus, Cards, Glass windows
• 1971 - Labyrinth Gate, Stanzas, Stained Glass, City and its Past
• 1972 - Doors opening to the past
• 1974 - Labyrinth series
• 1975 - Palace with two reclining statues, Ariadne, Labyrinth series
• 1976 - House of Blue Mirrors, Sitting and Leaving Figure, Summoning the Past, Walls, House of Secrets
• 1977 - Never-before-seen calendar with clock, Seated and departing figure
• 1978 - Black image with ancient sign, King and Queen

Her works are included in the permanent collections of the following museums:

• Ferenczy Museum, Szentendre
• Municipal Gallery, Budapest
• Herman Museum, Miskolc
• St. Stephen Museum, Székesfehérvár
• Israel Museum, Jerusalem
• Janus Pannonius Museum, Pécs
• Laczko D. Museum of Veszprém
• Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest
• Gallery of Szombathely, Szombathely

References

Benezit Dictionary of Artists. Vol. 8/38.

Cyclopaedia of Hungarian Painters and Graphic Artists. Vol. 455.

Art Encyclopedia. Vol. III/638.