{"id":88591,"date":"2015-08-06T18:41:48","date_gmt":"2015-08-06T22:41:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=88591"},"modified":"2015-08-06T18:41:48","modified_gmt":"2015-08-06T22:41:48","slug":"panther-and-lilies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/06\/panther-and-lilies\/","title":{"rendered":"Panther and Lilies"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Parduc_es_liliom_1930-33\"<\/a>

Lajos Vajda, Panther and Lilies<\/i>, 1930-33, photocollage on paper, 25.5″ x 20″<\/p><\/div>\n

The Hungarian artist Lajos Vajda died in 1941, when he was only thirty-three\u2014having long suffered from tuberculosis, he\u2019d fallen ill during a compulsory stint in the Labour Service<\/a>, the government\u2019s antisemitic substitute for military conscription. Vajda\u2019s paintings had garnered him a reputation among the avant-garde from a young age: an early critic called them \u201c<\/i>modern catacomb art.\u201d As a student at the Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest, one of his exhibitions met with such disdain among the conservative faculty that he was expelled. By the end of the twenties, he\u2019d allied himself with the Munka K\u00f6r, a revolutionary group of artists, intellectuals, and workers.<\/p>\n

Vajda spent the early thirties moving from hostel to hostel in Paris, where he developed a fascination with film that led to a prolific period as a collagist. You can see a number of his photomontages from this time below\u2014like his paintings and works in charcoal, they exude a fear of fascism and prefigure the violence of the Second World War. Ironically enough, a posthumous show of his work in 1943 at the Budapest Alkot\u00e1s House of Art had to be evacuated. It was interrupted by an air raid.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Photocollage on Cinnabar<\/i>, photocollage on paper, 1930-33, 15.2″ x 14.6″<\/p><\/div>

\"Vajda_Lajos_Haboru_1930-33\"<\/a>

H\u00e1bor\u00fa<\/i>, photomontage on paper, 1930-33, dimensions unknown<\/p><\/div>

\"\"<\/a>

Photocollage with Monk<\/i>, photocollage on paper, 1930-33, 25.4″ x 19.6″<\/p><\/div>

\"Vajda_Lajos_Fiatal_Munkas_(Dovzhenko)_1930-33\"<\/a>

Young Laborer<\/i>, photocollage on paper, 1930-33, 10″ x 8.1″<\/p><\/div>

\"Vajda_A_megkorbacsolt_hatu_1930-33\"<\/a>

The One with the Whipped Back<\/i>, photocollage on paper, 1930-33, 23.4″ x 17.6″<\/p><\/div>

\"\"<\/a>

Tolstoj and Gandhi<\/i>, photocollage on wood, 1930-33, 19.7″ x 24″<\/p><\/div>

\"\"<\/a>

Montage with the Portrait of Lajos Szab\u00f3<\/i>, pastel and photocollage on cardboard, 21.5″ x 19.5″<\/p><\/div>

\"Kinai_kivegzes_1930-33\"<\/a>

Chinese Execution<\/i>, montage on paper, 1930-33, 9.1″ x 12.4″<\/p><\/div>

\"Gustave_Fleury_1930-33\"<\/a>

Gustave Fleury<\/i>, photocollage on paper, 1930-33, 19.9″ x 25.4″<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Hungarian artist Lajos Vajda died in 1941, when he was only thirty-three\u2014having long suffered from tuberculosis, he\u2019d fallen ill during a compulsory stint in the Labour Service, the government\u2019s antisemitic substitute for military conscription. Vajda\u2019s paintings had garnered him a reputation among the avant-garde from a young age: an early critic called them \u201cmodern […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2384],"tags":[35,2051,19054,19055,4524,19053],"class_list":["post-88591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-look","tag-art","tag-collage","tag-hungary","tag-lajos-vajda","tag-modernism","tag-photomontage"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nLajos Vajda\u2019s Elaborate, Forbidding Photomontages<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"August 6, 2015 \u2013 The Hungarian artist Lajos Vajda died in 1941, when he was only thirty-three\u2014having long suffered from tuberculosis, he\u2019d fallen ill during a compulsory\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/06\/panther-and-lilies\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Panther and Lilies by Dan Piepenbring\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"August 6, 2015 \u2013 The Hungarian artist Lajos Vajda died in 1941, when he was only thirty-three\u2014having long suffered from tuberculosis, he\u2019d fallen ill during a compulsory\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/06\/panther-and-lilies\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-08-06T22:41:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/parduc_es_liliom_1930-33-813x1024.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"813\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dan Piepenbring\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dan Piepenbring\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/06\/panther-and-lilies\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/06\/panther-and-lilies\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Dan Piepenbring\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/6b16ca558fc538230f135c3220dfd3c8\"},\"headline\":\"Panther and Lilies\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-08-06T22:41:48+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/06\/panther-and-lilies\/\"},\"wordCount\":360,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/06\/panther-and-lilies\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/parduc_es_liliom_1930-33.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"art\",\"collage\",\"Hungary\",\"Lajos Vajda\",\"modernism\",\"photomontage\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Look\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/06\/panther-and-lilies\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/06\/panther-and-lilies\/\",\"name\":\"Lajos Vajda\u2019s Elaborate, Forbidding Photomontages\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/06\/panther-and-lilies\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/06\/panther-and-lilies\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/parduc_es_liliom_1930-33.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-08-06T22:41:48+00:00\",\"description\":\"August 6, 2015 \u2013 The Hungarian artist Lajos Vajda died in 1941, when he was only thirty-three\u2014having long suffered from tuberculosis, he\u2019d fallen ill during a compulsory\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/06\/panther-and-lilies\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/06\/panther-and-lilies\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/06\/panther-and-lilies\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/parduc_es_liliom_1930-33.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/parduc_es_liliom_1930-33.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/06\/panther-and-lilies\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Panther and Lilies\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"description\":\"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"width\":696,\"height\":696,\"caption\":\"The Paris Review\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/6b16ca558fc538230f135c3220dfd3c8\",\"name\":\"Dan Piepenbring\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6fde7ced443ba5b52db3b06239dca8a2eaeff111fccecd7bf483663c99d2762b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6fde7ced443ba5b52db3b06239dca8a2eaeff111fccecd7bf483663c99d2762b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Dan Piepenbring\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/dpiepenbring\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Lajos Vajda\u2019s Elaborate, Forbidding Photomontages","description":"August 6, 2015 \u2013 The Hungarian artist Lajos Vajda died in 1941, when he was only thirty-three\u2014having long suffered from tuberculosis, he\u2019d fallen ill during a compulsory","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/06\/panther-and-lilies\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Panther and Lilies by Dan Piepenbring","og_description":"August 6, 2015 \u2013 The Hungarian artist Lajos Vajda died in 1941, when he was only thirty-three\u2014having long suffered from tuberculosis, he\u2019d fallen ill during a compulsory","og_url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/06\/panther-and-lilies\/","og_site_name":"The Paris Review","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","article_published_time":"2015-08-06T22:41:48+00:00","og_image":[{"width":813,"height":1024,"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/parduc_es_liliom_1930-33-813x1024.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Dan Piepenbring","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@parisreview","twitter_site":"@parisreview","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Dan Piepenbring","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/06\/panther-and-lilies\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/06\/panther-and-lilies\/"},"author":{"name":"Dan Piepenbring","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/6b16ca558fc538230f135c3220dfd3c8"},"headline":"Panther and Lilies","datePublished":"2015-08-06T22:41:48+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/06\/panther-and-lilies\/"},"wordCount":360,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/06\/panther-and-lilies\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/parduc_es_liliom_1930-33.jpg","keywords":["art","collage","Hungary","Lajos Vajda","modernism","photomontage"],"articleSection":["Look"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/06\/panther-and-lilies\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/06\/panther-and-lilies\/","name":"Lajos Vajda\u2019s Elaborate, Forbidding Photomontages","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/06\/panther-and-lilies\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/06\/panther-and-lilies\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/parduc_es_liliom_1930-33.jpg","datePublished":"2015-08-06T22:41:48+00:00","description":"August 6, 2015 \u2013 The Hungarian artist Lajos Vajda died in 1941, when he was only thirty-three\u2014having long suffered from tuberculosis, he\u2019d fallen ill during a compulsory","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/06\/panther-and-lilies\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/06\/panther-and-lilies\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/06\/panther-and-lilies\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/parduc_es_liliom_1930-33.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/parduc_es_liliom_1930-33.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/06\/panther-and-lilies\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Panther and Lilies"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","name":"The Paris Review","description":"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization","name":"The Paris Review","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"The Paris Review"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/6b16ca558fc538230f135c3220dfd3c8","name":"Dan Piepenbring","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6fde7ced443ba5b52db3b06239dca8a2eaeff111fccecd7bf483663c99d2762b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6fde7ced443ba5b52db3b06239dca8a2eaeff111fccecd7bf483663c99d2762b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Dan Piepenbring"},"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/dpiepenbring\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88591"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88591\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88609,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88591\/revisions\/88609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}