Lívia Rusz
| Lívia Rusz | |
|---|---|
| Born |
September 28, 1930 Cluj |
| Nationality | Dual: Romanian and Hungarian |
| Area(s) | Artist |
|
Notable works
|
Mac, Cocofifi, Dan Buzdugan, Miskati közbelép |
Lívia or Livia Rusz (Hungarian pronunciation: [liːviɒ rus], Romanian: [ˈlivi.a rus]; born September 28, 1930) is a Romanian and Hungarian graphic artist, best known for her work in illustration, comic strip and comic book genres. One of the most recognizable contributors to these fields during Romania's communist period, she created popular children's comics such as Mac and Cocofifi, before signing as one of the main illustrators for Editura Ion Creangă publishing house. She subsequently produced illustrations for many of the company's principal releases, including an edition of Ion Creangă's Childhood Memories and the first Romanian-language edition of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit.
A member of the Hungarian-Romanian community, Rusz escaped communist political pressures by settling in Budapest, Hungary in 1987. She continues to live there, and has also become recognized as a contributor to the Hungarian comics school.
Born in Cluj (Kolozsvár), Lívia Rusz was from a Hungarian-Romanian family. She grew up in a mixed environment, among local Hungarians and Romanians, and, according to her own recollection: "My road was opened by a school with exceptional spirituality, where I was taught to respect and maintain traditions, to treasure the eternal cultural values, to preserve and take care of our identity so as not to offend the others". Her father, Liviu, was a Romanian Railways employee, amateur artist and calligrapher, who had undergone formal training with painter Sándor Szopos. Rusz was herself avid to train in visual art, copying his paintings, learning how to use watercolors, and entering a class run by Szopos. After graduating from primary school, Rusz continued her education at a high school in her native city, where her talents brought her to the attention of painter and academic Zoltán Kovács. On Kovács' personal recommendation, she applied for the Cluj Art Institute upon passing her baccalaureate examination, and completed her training in 1955. She declared herself "lucky" to have been taught by Kovács, "an artist with virtues recognized even by those who undermined him". As a result of this training and influence, she came to define herself as a "conservative", who did not "renew [herself] whenever the fashion changes." Rusz was Assistant at the Institute for the following three years, losing her post to an administrative restructuring.
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