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 (, , ; ; ) is a city in Romania, located in the Crișana region. It serves as the administrative county seat, seat of Bihor County and an economic, social, and cultural hub in northwestern Romania. The city lies between rolling hills on ...

, 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 ( , ; ; ; ) is a Municipiu, city along the Săsar, Săsar River, in northwestern Romania; it is the capital of Maramureș County. The city lies in the region of Maramureș, a subregion of Transylvania. It is situated about from Buchare ...

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

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

. 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 Timișoara (, , ; , also or ; ; ; see #Etymology, other names) is the capital city of Timiș County, Banat, and the main economic, social and cultural center in Western Romania. Located on the Bega (Tisza), Bega River, Timișoara is consider ...

, Arad,

Cluj Cluj-Napoca ( ; ), or simply Cluj ( , ), is a city in northwestern Romania. It is the second-most populous city in the country and the seat of Cluj County. Geographically, it is roughly equidistant from Bucharest (), Budapest () and Belgrade ( ...

, 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 (born Moishe Shagal; – 28 March 1985) was a Russian and French artist. An early modernism, modernist, he was associated with the School of Paris, École de Paris, as well as several major art movement, artistic styles and created ...

. 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 a term used for different types of skin inflammation, typically characterized by itchiness, redness and a rash. In cases of short duration, there may be small blisters, while in long-term cases the skin may become thickened ...

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

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

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

Ostroh Ostroh ( , ) is a city in Rivne Oblast, western Ukraine. It is situated on the Horyn River. Ostroh was the administrative center of Ostroh Raion until 2020, but as a city of oblast significance did not belong to the raion. Currently the city is ...

, 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 maga ...

'', 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 20th-century Hungarian Jews 20th-century Hungarian painters Hungarian graphic artists Romanian graphic artists People from Petroșani Hungarian civilians killed in World War II Hungarian World War II forced labourers