Former Dior Photographer’s Exhibition in Budapest

Wilhelm "Willy" Maywald (1907-1985), German photographer and former in-house photographer at Dior, opens an exhibition at the Virág Judit Gallery in Budapest on Thursday.

The artist, best known for his portrait and fashion photography, was a chronicler of the cream of the Parisian art world, according to a statement sent to MTI by the Virág Judit Gallery on Monday.

The owner of the collection, André Balogh, became friends with Willy Maywald in Paris in the 1970s. The photographs in the exhibition are a tribute to such greats as French acting legend Jean Marais, Golden Globe and BAFTA-winning French actress Anouk Aimée, French writer Simone de Beauvoir, French painter Marc Chagall, French abstract painter Georges Mathieu, two-time Oscar-winning British actress Vivien Leigh and world-famous French architect Le Corbusier.

One of the most unique pieces in the collection is a photograph of Tamara Lempicka, a painter with Polish and Russian roots. Lempicka created a fashion with her extravagant looks, lifestyle and rebellious artwork, and today her collectors include Madonna, Jack Nicholson and Barbra Streisand, the statement said.

The exhibition will also feature Hungarian artists, including József Csáky, a sculptor who worked in France.

German-born Maywald lived in Paris, where he made a name for himself as a fashion photographer. As a featured, elite photographer for the Dior fashion house, the doors to stardom opened for him. He was close friends with Picasso and Tamara Lempicka, and his pictures were on the cover of magazines such as Vogue and Vanity Fair.