Marya Lilien

Marya Lilien, also Maria Lilien-Czarnecka (27 March 1900 or 1901 – 12 January 1998) was a Polish architect, university professor and the first woman architect to apprentice under Frank Lloyd Wright. She created and headed the Department of Interior Design at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Early life and education Marya Lilien was born on 27 March 1900 or 1901, in Lviv, in a Polish-Jewish family of Adolf Lilien (1863–1911) and Emma née Nierenstein (1867–1934). at the Lviv Polytechnic, who offered her a scholarship, At the start of World War II she was in Lviv, but she managed to escape to the US via Romania She was also the initiator of the Treasures from Poland exhibition presented in 1966 at the Art Institute to commemorate the millennium of the Polish State. It was founded in the late 1960s or in the 1970s.

Personal life A portrait of Marya Lilien painted by Polish artist Antoni Michalak, called Lady in Blue Gloves, was exhibited in the late 1930s at the Venice Biennale, then in Pittsburgh and finally at the 1939 New York World's Fair. Later, it was also shown at the Carnegie Museum of Art.

Marya Lilien was married to Wlodzimierz Czarnecki. She returned to Poland at the end of her life. She died on 12 January 1998 in Zakopane.