Americo Makk

Americo Makk (birth name Imre Makk) was born in 1927 in a town in western Hungary once known as Győrszentmárton and later renamed Pannonhalma.

Americo's father was the financial supervisor to the Benedictine monks, who resided in the Pannonhalma Archabbey and taught in the local school.

Americo began sketching at the age of six and by the time he was eight, the Benedictine Brothers encouraged him further into art.

When Americo turned 12, the communist Russian army first invaded Hungary.

Americo's parents cautioned that pursuing art as a vocation could lead to poverty and that a career in architectural engineering was more suitable.

Eva's father, Dr. Bertalan Holusa, a former economic and agricultural adviser to Ethiopia's Haile Selassie, had fled from Africa with his family to France in 1937 as a result of the Second Italo-Ethiopian War and then to São Paulo with its rapid industrialization.

The official language in Brazil was Portuguese.

"Imre" in Portuguese is "Americo", and it was here that Americo adopted the Portuguese translation for his name.

Americo's formal training as a painter began at the Hungarian National Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest, where he studied from 1945 through 1948.

Later that year, at the age of 21, he received a scholarship that allowed him to study at the Academy of Fine Art in Rome, Italy.

As Hungary was administered by the communist party and had become the Hungarian People's Republic, a satellite state under the Soviet Union, Americo doubted that the authorities would allow him to accept the scholarship in Rome, but in the end he could leave for Italy.

Once in Rome, Americo focused his studies on ecclesiastical art and the works of Renaissance masters, such as Raphael, Michelangelo, and Leonardo da Vinci.

In his interviews, he was cautious when conveying his memories of the communist takeover of Hungary for fear of reprisal against family members who were living there, and he simply described the period as "very unpleasant."

However, what he could not express in words he did in his paintings in which he expressed "all the grief and agony that the people of Hungary have suffered..."

While studying at the Academy, Americo met the 16-year-old Eva Holusa, a fellow student also of Hungarian descent, whom he later married and worked alongside for the remainder of his life.

He went on to teach at the Rome Academy of Fine Art.

It was then that he won the Vatican Portrait Award with a portrait of Cardinal József Mindszenty, a figure personifying the opposition to communism in Hungary in support of religious freedom.This portrait was installed in the Vatican for permanent display.

In 1949, Americo Makk followed Eva Holusa and moved to São Paulo, Brazil.

Americo and Eva married in São Paulo on October 18, 1950.

In 1951, they were appointed Professors of Fine Arts at the Academia de Belas Artes.

That same year, their son, Americo Bartholomew, A.B. Makk, a respected artist in his own right, was born.

While in Brazil, Americo and Eva Makk jointly painted fourteen Catholic cathedrals, churches and basilicas.

Their most famous cathedral painting, "Coronation of Our Lady", was a 2,349 square foot (218 square meters) al-secco ceiling in the Cathedral of Manaus, the largest single motif painting in the world, which depicts the coronation of the Virgin Mary in her crowning as the Queen of Heaven.

The mural reportedly took two years to complete, working 60 to 100 feet in the air on wood scaffolding in "stifling heat and little light."

Americo Makk reported rats getting into the paints, and he suffered a fall from the scaffolding while painting.

In 1957, their cathedral work culminated with a request via telegram from the Governor of Amazonas, Plínio Ramos Coelho, for an assignment to travel the Amazon jungle, also known as the Amazon rainforest or Amazonia, to study the remaining indigenous Indian tribes, which were thinning by a boom of industrial growth and deforestation.

Both Governor Coehlo, and the Mayor of Manaus, Gilberto Mestrinho, later to succeed Coelho as Governor, co-sponsored the expedition, which was planned to last approximately one to two years.

Paintings were the medium of choice for the project, as it was known that some tribes hidden in the darkness of the jungle became anxious or reacted violently to camera flashes or flashbulbs.

For the year preceding the trip, Americo and Eva Makk explored areas of the rainforest to get acquainted with the subject matter.

During the period from 1958 through 1962, the Makks were appointed the Official Artists of the then democratic Brazilian government, painting government officials and murals as well as church officials in Brazil, including Sobral Bishop Dom José Tupinambá da Frota.

At this time, Americo and Eva merged their independent styles by working side-by-side on the expansive cathedral murals that appeared to be painted by one hand.

From then on, Americo and Eva became synonymous with each other's work and the Makk family brand, "Casal Makk" (Portuguese for "Makk couple"), was created.

The remaining cathedral wall and ceiling paintings by the Makks are tourist attractions in Brazil to this day, which are signed Casal Makk, such as those found in the Parish of Our Lady of Patronage (Nossa Senhora do Patrocinio) in Jau, State of São Paulo, Brazil.

In 1958, the Makks, including 8-year-old A.B. with pet Ocelot "Cica" (Hungarian for "cat"), accompanied by guides and a Catholic missionary priest, embarked on their expedition to study the flora, fauna and inhabitants of the Amazon rainforest.

The expedition began in Manaus, the capital of Amazonas, and the heart of the Amazon jungle.

The trip spanned over 1,000 miles of travel by foot, river boat, canoe, small plane and helicopter; there were no roads.

They planned to meet guides at designated checkpoints, who were considered friendly Indians of various tribes.

In 1962, he emigrated to the United States with his family to escape the communist movement in Brazil.

His paintings include historical and ecclesiastical portraits and murals, including portraits of two United States Presidents, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, as well as notable figures such as Edward Teller, Eva Gabor, Barbara Sinatra, Ray Price, and Barbara Carrera.

Americo Makk (1927–May 5, 2015) was a painter and portrait artist from Hungary.