Lea Grundig (Dresden, 23 March 1906 – 10 October 1977, at sea) was a German painter and graphic artist.

[1][2][3] Lea Langer was born in the old central heart of Dresden, where she grew up as part of the city's Jewish community.

Lea attended school locally between 1912 and 1922, while rejecting, even as a young girl, the family's religious orthodoxy.

She went on to study at the city's Decorative Arts and Crafts Academy[4] before progressing, in 1924, to the prestigious Saxon Art Academy: here she was admitted into the Masterclass of Otto Gussmann where fellow participants included Otto Griebel, Wilhelm Lachnit and Hans Grundig.

She was also a co-founder of the Association of Revolutionary Visual Artists (ARBKD / Assoziation revolutionärer bildender Künstler Deutschlands).

Grundig nevertheless remained an active participant in resistance to the regime, as part of a group that also included Kurt Magritz and Rudi Wetzel.

In the mid-1930s Lea Grundig's own work, reflected themes of the new Nazi age, with her cycles "Harzburger Front", "Unterm Hakenkreuz" (1936), "Der Jude ist schuld!"

[1] In March 1939 she was found guilty of "Preparing to commit High Treason" (»Vorbereitung zum Hochverrat«) as a result of her Communist activities and/or her Jewish provenance, and was sentenced to four months imprisonment.

During the 1950s and 60s she was able to travel extensively to countries with which East Germany was aligned politically, including the People's Republic of China, Cuba and Cambodia.

The purpose was to endow an annual prize for outstanding achievements in the fields of art, culture and culture-related teaching for students and graduates at Greifswald's Caspar David Friedrich Institute.