Hungarian Painter.

He was a student of István Csók

István Csók

István Csók was a Hungarian Impressionist painter. Csok lived and exhibited in Paris for a portion of his life. He became most famous in Hungary for his nudes, portraits, and landscapes of the Lake Balaton. Csok had many international exhibitions in such cities as Rome, San Francisco, Pittsburgh,...

 at the Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts in 1927-30. He studied together with Dezsõ Korniss at Fernand Léger

Fernand Léger

Joseph Fernand Henri Léger was a French painter, sculptor, and filmmaker. In his early works he created a personal form of Cubism which he gradually modified into a more figurative, populist style...

 in Paris in 1930-34 where he was introduced to cubism

Cubism

Cubism was a 20th century avant-garde art movement, pioneered by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture...

 and surrealism

Surrealism

Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....

.

He lived and worked in Szentendre

Szentendre

Szentendre is a riverside town in Pest county, Hungary, near the capital city Budapest. It is known for its museums , galleries, and artists. Due to its picturesque appearance and easy rail and river access, it has become a popular destination for tourists staying in Budapest...

, Hungary

Hungary

Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

. Following the method of composers Béla Bartók

Béla Bartók

Béla Viktor János Bartók was a Hungarian composer and pianist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century and is regarded, along with Liszt, as Hungary's greatest composer...

 and Zoltán Kodály

Zoltán Kodály

Zoltán Kodály was a Hungarian composer, ethnomusicologist, pedagogue, linguist, and philosopher. He is best known internationally as the creator of the Kodály Method.-Life:Born in Kecskemét, Kodály learned to play the violin as a child....

 he collected folk art motifs in Szentendre and Szigetmonostor

Szigetmonostor

Szigetmonostor is a village in Pest county, Hungary on an island of the Danube north of Budapest.Most of the fresh water of Budapest came from the fountains of the village....

 for his artworks.

He combined religious (orthodox christian, roman catholic and jewish) symbols, architectural and folk art motifs, abstract

Abstract art

Abstract art uses a visual language of form, color and line to create a composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world. Western art had been, from the Renaissance up to the middle of the 19th century, underpinned by the logic of perspective and an...

, figurative

Figurative art

Figurative art, sometimes written as figurativism, describes artwork—particularly paintings and sculptures—which are clearly derived from real object sources, and are therefore by definition representational.-Definition:...

, and surrealistic elements on his pictures to create complex visionary images. His last abstract surreal drawings foreshadow the horrors of World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. He died of tuberculosis

Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...

 in 1941.

He is considered to be the most distinctive of the Hungarian avant-garde

Avant-garde

Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....

 movement. His art influenced generations of Hungarian artists among them the members of the European School Art Group (established in 1945) and the Vajda Lajos Studio (established in 1972).

His works can be found in museums and private collections, among them in the Hungarian National Gallery

Hungarian National Gallery

The Hungarian National Gallery , was established in 1957 as the national art museum. It is located in Buda Castle in Budapest, Hungary. Its collections cover Hungarian art in all genres, including the many twentieth-century Hungarian artists who worked in Paris and other locations in the West...

 in Budapest and in the Vajda Lajos Museum in Szentendre, Hungary.