Emory Ladanyi

Emory Ladanyi (Hungarian-American, 1902–1986).

This work is offered unframed.

Born in Hungary, Emory Ladanyi first attended the University of Budapest Medical School. During his medical residency in Berlin, he was especially influenced by the works of Edvard Munch, forerunner of German Expressionism. During a second residency in Vienna, he was also exposed to the works of Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele and Kokoschka who were influential in his further development.

In 1929, Ladanyi arrived in New York and began to practice medicine, which enabled him to continue painting. Outside of his professional work, he moved exclusively in the avant-garde artistic circles of New York City, becoming close friends with the composer Edgard Varese, the poet Kenneth Patchen and the writers Anais Nin and Henry Miller.

After Pearl Harbor, Ladanyi volunteered for service in the US Army and was commissioned as a captain in the Medical Corps. During the duration of the war, he gave up his medical practice and, in 1945, he resumed both his medical practice and painting. He exhibited widely and with success, including in Budapest, Berlin, New York, Chicago and the Massachusetts Museum of Art.

This painting is accompanied by a first edition of the hardcover book titled Ladanyi, published by Abaris Books, Inc. (1977), in which this work is illustrated on p.132.

Signed lower right; additionally signed, titled, and dated (verso)