The Surrealism Website
Ladislav Guderna (1921-1999)
Born in Nitra, now in western Slovakia, in 1921, he became a member of Avantgarda 38, a Slovak surrealist group and spent some time in Paris, meeting the founders of Surrealism. Guderna emigrated to Canada in 1968 ijn response to the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, after the Prague Spring. He lived first in Toronto then moved in 1979 to Vancouver and became recognised as one of the very few surrealist painters in Canada. His output included many drawings, paintings and prints. He also contributed to the surrealist magazine 'Scarabeus', which he published with his son, Martin. He was a founding member of both the Slovak and West Coast Surrealist art groups. Despite being exhibited internationally, he remains little known outside of Slovakia.
