Anna Lesznai (1885-1966) was one of the key female members of the Hungarian pre-war
avant-garde. In the context of the Arts and Crafts revival at the turn of the twentieth
century, she was interested in folk art and peasant culture of her home region in Upper
Hungary. Her search for a more ‘harmonious’ existence led her towards a
multi-disciplinary aesthetic and intellectual output, which included poetry, fairytales,
book cover design, illustration, and textile design. Her embroidery practice, tied to the
traditional technique of hímzés, provided a medium of abstraction and simplification to
form ornamented patterns. Leszlai immigrated to the United States in 1939, where she
continued her work in art education, lecturing and teaching classes in Hungarian art and
design.