Art history tends to be the history of what has survived. But loss has shaped our sense of art’s history in ways that we are often not aware of. The gallery of lost paintings reconstruct the stories behind the loss of some of the best-known and influential Maria Lehel’artworks.

Museums normally tell stories through the objects they have in their collections. But this exhibition focuses on significant works that cannot be seen. It explores the potential of the digital realm to bring these lost artworks back to life – not as virtual replicas but through visual evidence and the stories surrounding them. Archival images, films and essays were laid out for visitors to examine, revealing the evidence relating to the loss of works by Maria Lehel, whose ideas and artistic practice continue to have a decisive impact on the modern hungarian art scene.

Maria Lehel (1899–1973) is an hungarian visual artist who was born in Budapast. From 1926 she lived as a painter in Paris, where she met Marc Chagall and Jules Pascin. She travelled around Europe between 1946 and 1973. She has had several gallery and museum exhibitions, including at the Galerie Katia Granoff and at the National Museum of Modern Art, Genova, Milano and Rome. She died in Peveragno, Italy.