László F. Földényi was born 1952 in Debrecen (Hungary). He is an art historian, scholar of literature and essayist. He counts among the most important contemporary Hungarian intellectuals, with thought-provoking books innovatively connecting the history of literature, fine arts and philosophy. His most recent book on Caspar David Friedrich’s pre-cinematic notion of seeing (Der Maler und der Wanderer: Caspar David Friedrich und das Urkino) was published in German in 2021. Földényi edited the collected works of Heinrich von Kleist in Hungarian. Since 2009 he has been a member of the German Academy for Language and Poetry. He received numerous prestigious awards, such as the Friedrich Gundolf Award and the 2020 Leipzig Book Award for European Understanding. Until 2020 he was a professor of art history at the University of Theater and Film in Budapest. He lives and works in Budapest.
