Lena Vandrey was born in 1941 in Breslau (Germany), which became Wroclaw (Poland) after 1945. In 1958 she moved to Paris then near Barjac in 1967. Died in 2018, she lived in Bourg Saint Andéol in Ardèche where she and her partner have created a Musée des Anges.

Friend of Monique Wittig and Niki de Saint Phalle, collected by Dubuffet who nicknamed her "Insomnia", model for Ungaro, Lena Vandrey is one of the singular figures of art. From 1970, she exhibited paintings and sculptures in France, Germany and Switzerland and published poems. Her Amazons present an image of powerful and totally free women.

Marked by the war, all her work testifies to her desire to make reparation. Repairing the failings of patriarchal history. Angels, dreams, paradise define a cosmic interpretation of the world.

Her partner Mina Noubadji-Huttenlocher contacted Carré d’Art to make a large donation, Lena Vandrey having lived for many years in Gard near Barjac.

Carré d’Art has selected four sets of works that can make sense in the museum’s collection. Angels, Dreams, the Cut-out series and Paradise are series that she developed from the end of the 1990s.

This donation is part of a series of donations bringing together the most prestigious French collections: MNAM-Centre Pompidou, Cantini Museum in Marseille, MAC in Saint-Etienne, MASC in Sables d’Olonne, Estrine Museum in Saint-Rémy de Provence, FRAC Nouvelle-Aquitaine in Bordeaux, the Palais Idéal du Facteur Cheval in Hauterives; as well as Collection de l’Art Brut in Lausanne.