Ellen Lanyon (1926-2013) was a painter and printmaker from Chicago, Illinois. Her work is widely characterised as surreal and has a dreamlike quality, featuring animal, mechanical and floral motifs in complex compositions. An early influence for Lanyon was the foundry where her father worked; she spent time there drawing machine parts, honing her linear style which evolved to become finely detailed. An avid collector of curiosities throughout her life, Lanyon also drew from her collection which contained inherited objects such as a toad-shaped tobacco jar. This appears in several of her works including one of the ‘Curiosities’ screenprints that she made with Kip Gresham.
Over the course of her career, Lanyon had over 75 solo exhibitions, including 11 museum exhibitions, three of which were major travelling retrospectives. She was awarded numerous prizes for her work and taught at several institutions including the Art Institute of Chicago.
