Alex Leon or, as he signed his pictures, Leon AlexAlex is a short form of given name Alexander, which is the original form of Sándor (Hungarian) and Sander (Jewish), respectively, while the Spanish león means lion, a translation of Löwe (German, for lion) in Löwinger. was the pseudonym of

Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language ***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language **Romanian cuisine, traditional ...

- Hungarian graphic artist and painter Sándor Löwinger (30 May 1907 – after 8 March 1944).

Biography

Alex Leon was born into a Jewish family in Petroşani, Romania, in 1907. In 1916 his family moved to

Oradea Oradea (, , ; german: Großwardein ; hu, Nagyvárad ) is a city in Romania, located in Crișana, a sub-region of Transylvania. The county seat, seat of Bihor County, Oradea is one of the most important economic, social and cultural centers in the ...

, where he finished the four-year middle school in 1922. In 1923 he began a men's tailor apprenticeship, which he finished in 1926 with a certificate. Being unsatisfied with that handicraft, he began working as a lithographer in 1927. In 1928 he attended the art school in

Baia Mare Baia Mare ( , ; hu, Nagybánya; german: Frauenbach or Groß-Neustadt; la, Rivulus Dominarum) is a municipality along the Săsar River, in northwestern Romania; it is the capital of Maramureș County. The city lies in the region of Maramureș ...

. In the spring of 1930 he made his first voyage to

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

. In 1932 he moved away from his family. He had his first exposition in the journalist's club of Oradea in 1933. In 1934 he visited Prague for the second time and had expositions in

Timișoara ), City of Roses ( ro, Orașul florilor), City of Parks ( ro, Orașul parcurilor) , image_map = Timisoara jud Timis.svg , map_caption = Location in Timiș County , pushpin_map = Romania#Europe , pushpin_ ...

, Arad,

Cluj ; hu, kincses város) , official_name=Cluj-Napoca , native_name= , image_skyline= , subdivision_type1 = Counties of Romania, County , subdivision_name1 = Cluj County , subdivision_type2 = Subdivisions of Romania, Status , subdivision_name2 ...

, again in Timișoara, then in Oradea. In 1934 and 1936 two albums with his lithographs were published in Timișoara. In 1936 he went for a longer study trip to Paris, where he became a student of the painters

Lajos Tihanyi Lajos Tihanyi (29 October 1885 – 11 June 1938) was a Hungarian painter and lithographer who achieved international renown working outside his country, primarily in Paris, France. After emigrating in 1919, he never returned to Hungary, even on a ...

and

Marc Chagall Marc Chagall; russian: link=no, Марк Заха́рович Шага́л ; be, Марк Захаравіч Шагал . (born Moishe Shagal; 28 March 1985) was a Russian-French artist. An early modernism, modernist, he was associated with se ...

. He returned to Romania in the summer of 1939 and lived in Oradea and Brasov, but mainly in Timișoara; in August 1940 he finally settled in Oradea. In July 1942 he was deported to do slave work on the Eastern military front. In 1943 he fell ill with typhoid-related

eczema Dermatitis is inflammation of the Human skin, skin, typically characterized by itchiness, erythema, redness and a rash. In cases of short duration, there may be small blisters, while in long-term cases the skin may become lichenification, thick ...

, but received no medical treatment. In January 1944 he escaped to the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

, but had to go to a hospital because of frostbitten feet. He presumably died in

Ostroh Ostroh ( uk, Остро́г; pl, Ostróg) is a historic city located in Rivne Oblast (province) of western Ukraine, on the Horyn River. Ostroh is the administrative center of the Ostroh Raion (district). Administratively, Ostroh is incorporated ...

, Ukraine, after 8 March 1944. Alex Leon was an

expressionist Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...

artist; his work being regarded as a tribute to the social resonances of expressionism. His biographer, , called it "instinctive dream-painting".

Bibliography

*István Borghida: ''Leon Alex'', Kriterion Könyvkiadó, 1973 *Sándor Korvin: "Egy fiatal rajzoló látomásai" (A Young Artist's Visions), ''

Korunk ''Korunk'' (meaning ''Our Age'' in English) is a Hungarian language monthly cultural-literary-scientific magazine published in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. History and profile ''Korunk'' was founded by László Dienes in Cluj-Napoca in 1926. The magazine ...

'', 1935, #12. *István Gábor: ''Leon Alex Párizsba készül'' (Leon Alex was Made for Paris), ''Nagyváradi Napló'', 27 June 1936.

Notes

External links

Alex Leon
@ "The Art of Polemics", with a slideshow of his works.
"Vallomások Leon Alexről szóban és képben"
(Testimonies of Alex Leon in Word and Image) by István Borghida @ Elektonikus Periodika Archívum {{DEFAULTSORT:Leon, Alex 1907 births 1944 deaths Jewish painters Hungarian Jews 20th-century Hungarian painters People from Petroșani Hungarian civilians killed in World War II Hungarian World War II forced labourers