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Key Keeper

Ludwik Lille

Basic information

ID: ФМз-Г-V-178
Author: Ludwik Lille
Name: Key Keeper
Technique: drawing
Material: paper Indian ink
Dimensions: 29 x 21.5 cm (height x width)

Additionally

Type: graphic art
Genre: grotesque
Provenance: Yaroslava Muzyka Fund

Information about author

Author: Ludwik Lille
Artist's lifetime: 1897–1957
Country: Austro-Hungarian Empire, France
Biography: Ludwik Lille (23 October 1897, Pidvolochysk town (now Ternopil region) – 23 April 1957, Paris). Polish painter, graphic artist, illustrator, scenographer, and art critic of Jewish origin. He is a representative of the Paris school. Throughout his life, he tended towards Expressionism, Cubism, Abstractionism, and Surrealism. His work is characterised by both dynamic, grotesque compositions with expressive distortion of form and sharply contrasting colours, as well as static, balanced compositions with a colour range restricted to silvery blues, shades of ochre, grey shades, and also diffused light that engulfs the contours of the figures. Ludwik Lille received his secondary education in Lviv. At first, he studied medicine, but after he developed contacts with the group of Poznan Expressionists in 1919 and later with Krakow Formists, he became interested in art and began collaborating with the magazine "Formiści". Between 1921 and 1922, he studied in Berlin in the workshop of Oleksandr Arkhypenko and attended Paul Klee's lectures at the Bauhaus Institute in Weimar. Since 1925, he designed stage decorations for Lviv-based experimental theatres, organised ballet performances, illustrated books, and was the editor of the "Artistic News" column on Lviv radio. In 1929, Ludwik Lille became the initiator and co-founder of the artistic avant-garde group "Artes", which he led for five years. In 1934, the artist's first personal exhibition was held in Lviv. The artist founded the Museum of the Jewish Religious Community of Lviv that year. The Ludwik Lille collection of Jewish religious objects was divided between the Museum of Art and History of Judaism in Paris and the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. In 1937, he moved to Paris, where he stayed till his death. During the German occupation, Lille participated in the Resistance movement. He was the head of the Union of Polish Artists in France and an Association of Graphic Artists member. In 1945–1956, the works of Ludwik Lille were exhibited in Paris galleries. The artist mainly focused on sanguine, charcoal, chalk, ink, pencil, and watercolour drawings and worked in etching and dry needle techniques. He also carved small terracotta sculptures with images of animals.

Object description

The picture depicts a hypertrophied overweight man wearing a white shirt and striped trousers. A large key is attached to his belt. On the reverse side is a sanguine drawing that depicts a stylised image of a headless man.

Inscriptions

On the top of the reverse side is the signature and title in pencil: "L. Lille, Key Keeper, paper, ink, 29 x 21.5"

Legal regulation

Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery

Key Keeper

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