Lajos Vajda (Hungarian: Vajda Lajos; 1908, Zalaegerszeg – 1941, Budakeszi) was a Hungarian painter and graphic artist. From 1927 to 1930 he was a student of István Csók at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts.
Vajda stayed in Paris between 1930 and 1934 and, in addition to the most recent trends in French painting, he also got acquainted with the outstanding works of the Russian Realist film. This prompted him to create his dramatic photo-montages of the great cataclysms of mankind, war, hunger, armed violence and abject misery. From 1934 onwards, he collected folk art motifs in Szentendre and Szigetmonostor. In his style, folk art and Orthodox Christian, Roman Catholic and Jewish symbols were combined with abstract and surrealistic elements. His last abstract surrealistic drawings foreshadow the horrors of World War II. He died of tuberculosis in 1941.
Chronology
1908 Lajos Vajda was born into a Jewish family on 6 August 1908 in the town of Zalaegerszeg, Hungary. His father, Emánuel Vajda, was a court clerk at the local county court. His mother was Judit Fürst. "She was a religious woman. Under her influence, the family kept the Jewish festivals and lit a candle on Friday evenings. Lajos Vajda had three siblings: Miklós, Teréz and Márton. All of Lajos Vajda's siblings were murdered in the Holocaust. "Lajos Vajda started to draw regularly at the age of five. He made illustrations to tales by copying sample drawings. Later on, he magnified the original reproductions relying on a precise and disciplined technique." In his first drawings there are warships, battle signs, and later he captured his surroundings and family members. 1916 The family moved to Serbia, which was at that time under Austrian military occupation. In Belgrade Vajda went to a Serbian school, then to a German school. In a letter written to his lover and future wife, Júlia Richter he writes as follows: „You think I don’t know German. The truth is that I also learnt German for two years (classes three and four) in Belgrade, at the Austrian elementary school called K.u.K. Guvermentalschule Belgrade, Kraljica Natlia ulica.”. Later on the family settled in Valjevo, a town in western Serbia. „The family was living in abject poverty for six years first in Belgrade, then in Valjevo. Lajos went to a German elementary school in classes three and four in Belgrade, in the Austrian school. He went to secondary school in Serbia. He was an excellent student especially interested in History and Geography. It was in Serbia that he got acquainted with Pravoslav churches. At that time, he made portraits and drew after models. His teachers and art lovers predicted a great future for the boy. 1917 His first known drawings were produced. 1922-1924 The family moved back to Hungary. The talented young artist received encouragement from his teachers and studied at the Budapest open drawing school of OMIKE (the Hungarian Jewish Educational Association) under the tutelage of Lipót Herman. His uncle, Mihály Vajda became an important figure in Vajda’s life. Mihály Vajda was a journalist, and for some years he was the Paris correspondent of his paper. It was in his uncle’s library that Lajos Vajda developed a keen interest in art.