Lívia Rusz
Encyclopedia
Lívia or Livia Rusz is a Romania
n 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
.
(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.
At that stage in her life, Lívia Rusz began collaborating with specialized magazines for children. With time, her work in the comics genre came to be influenced by Jean Cézard, French
creator of Arthur le fantôme justicier
for Pif gadget
, and one of the few foreign cartoonists to be known in Romania. The first local publication to employ Rusz was the Hungarian-language
Napsugár, where she first met writer Sándor Fodor, with whom she collaborated on the cycle of books Csipike (known as Piticul Cipi in Romanian). This contribution brought her to the attention of Lucia Olteanu, editor of Luminiţa, a Bucharest
-based and Romanian-language periodical. Rusz accepted the offer for collaboration, and, with Olteanu, created the comic strips Răţoiul Mac ("Mac the Duck"; Hungarian: Mákvirág) and Cocofifi (or Kokó). These earned Rusz a large following among the young public, and she also began collaborating with the youth journals Arici Pogonici and Cutezătorii. Her other projects in comics included a rendition of L. Frank Baum
's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
, as well as the comic strips Maimuţa Kio ("Kio the Monkey", with a text by Ovidiu Zotta), redrawings of the Mac and Cocofifi originals, and Dan Buzdugan ("Dan the Mace", a medieval fantasy
series, distinguished among her contributions for its more realistic visual style).
By then, Rusz had also started work in illustration, primarily as a cover art
ist for various local publishing houses, including Editura Ion Creangă
and Editura Tineretului. Her work was remarked by writer and Ion Creangă manager Tiberiu Utan, and Rusz became a permanent collaborator of the brand. During her time with Editura Ion Creangă, she applied her art to editions of Wilhelm Hauff
's Märchen (as Basme), and reprints of classical works for children in Romanian literature
: Nicolae Constantin Batzaria
's Poveşti de aur ("Golden Stories") and Ion Creangă
's collected fairy tale
s and Childhood Memories
. Also during that interval, Lívia Rusz became the first Romanian illustrator of J. R. R. Tolkien
's work, when she contributed drawings for The Hobbit
(in its original 1975 edition, marketed by Editura Ion Creangă). While working on this project, she was reportedly unable to compare her renditions of hobbit
s, Elves
or Orcs
with any previous portrayals by other artists, owing to the scarcity of foreign literature sources in Romania—her work therefore owed much to imagination.
In 1987, two years before the December Revolution
toppled communism, Rusz decided to leave Romania for West Germany
. This gesture was a consequence of nationalist
and national communist
policies adopted by the regime of Nicolae Ceauşescu
and specifically targeting some of Romania's ethnic minorities
. According to writer György Györfi-Deák, Ceauşescu "gave a hard time to the Hungarians", and Rusz personally was "harassed by the dictator's politruks
and Securitate
men". After a short stay in Germany, Rusz settled in Budapest
, Hungary, where she owns a villa
. She continued her activity, becoming a noted contributor to the Hungarian comic school
(with albums such as Miskati közbelép, "Miskati Intervenes"). The change was described by the artist herself as a difficult one: "Even plants will suffer when moved from one pot to another; it was not easy for me either to build up my new roots, but as long as forces permit me and I can still work it means I am alive."
), she drew particular critical attention for Childhood Memories. Deemed "legendary" by Györfi-Deák, the volume also led Arina Stonescu to write: "I often imagine the fascinating world of the storyteller Ion Creangă only populated by Livia Rusz's girls and boys in national costumes
."
Rusz was described as "the greatest creator of comic strips in Romania" by comics historiographer Dodo Niţă, who granted Mac and Cocofifi the second place in an all-time chart of Romanian comics. Her activity under communism nevertheless coincided with a decline in the overall impact of Romanian comics: while exercising ideological control over the comic strip scene, the Romanian Communist Party
reputedly preferred to invest in animation
, seeing it as a more effective propaganda
tool. In this context, Rusz and Eugen Taru were among those who still produced comics able to reach the general public (a category which also included, according to one assessment, Ion Deak, Pompiliu Dumitrescu, Puiu Manu, Vintilă Mihăescu, Dumitru Negrea and Ion Popescu-Gopo
). Her work in the field was also subject to a post-1989 revival in interest. It was a feature of reference works published in 1996 and 2005 by Dodo Niţă, and the artist herself a special guest at the Romanian-Hungarian Comics Salon, organized in Budapest by the Romanian Cultural Institute
. Niţă also joined up with Ferenc Kiss to write and publish a the first monograph
on Rusz, which saw print in 2009. It included homage pieces from two of her fans, historian Adrian Cioroianu
and writer-diplomat Mircea Opriţă. In reference to the artist's overall contribution, the latter noted: "In addition to talent, an artist specializing in graphic art for children needs to have an outstanding soul."
Lívia Rusz first became known outside Hungary and Romania during the 1970s and '80s, when Mac or Cofofifi were translated into English, German
, Russian
and Spanish
. The 1980s version of the two volumes were published in countries of the Eastern Bloc
and beyond (in Hungary, East Germany and Cuba
). While the Tolkien edition registered much success in Romania, it became internationally known only in the decades after 1989, when Rusz's illustrations were republished by Douglas A. Anderson
.
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
n and Hungarian
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
graphic artist, best known for her work in illustration
Illustration
An illustration is a displayed visualization form presented as a drawing, painting, photograph or other work of art that is created to elucidate or dictate sensual information by providing a visual representation graphically.- Early history :The earliest forms of illustration were prehistoric...
, comic strip
Comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
and comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
genres. One of the most recognizable contributors to these fields during Romania's communist period
Communist Romania
Communist Romania was the period in Romanian history when that country was a Soviet-aligned communist state in the Eastern Bloc, with the dominant role of Romanian Communist Party enshrined in its successive constitutions...
, she created popular children's comics such as Mac and Cocofifi, before signing as one of the main illustrators for Editura Ion Creangă
Editura Ion Creangă
Editura Ion Creangă was a publishing house based in Bucharest, Romania. Founded as a state-run company under communist rule and named after the 19th century writer Ion Creangă, it ranked high among Romanian publishers of children's literature, fantasy literature and science fiction...
publishing house. She subsequently produced illustrations for many of the company's principal releases, including an edition of Ion Creangă
Ion Creanga
Ion Creangă was a Moldavian-born Romanian writer, raconteur and schoolteacher. A main figure in 19th century Romanian literature, he is best known for his Childhood Memories volume, his novellas and short stories, and his many anecdotes...
's Childhood Memories
Childhood Memories (Creangă)
Childhood Memories is one of the main literary contributions of Romanian author Ion Creangă...
and the first Romanian-language edition of J. R. R. Tolkien
J. R. R. Tolkien
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College,...
's The Hobbit
The Hobbit
The Hobbit, or There and Back Again, better known by its abbreviated title The Hobbit, is a fantasy novel and children's book by J. R. R. Tolkien. It was published on 21 September 1937 to wide critical acclaim, being nominated for the Carnegie Medal and awarded a prize from the New York Herald...
.
A member of the Hungarian-Romanian
Hungarians in Romania
The Hungarian minority of Romania is the largest ethnic minority in Romania, consisting of 1,431,807 people and making up 6.6% of the total population, according to the 2002 census....
community, Rusz escaped communist political pressures by settling in Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
, Hungary in 1987. She continues to live there, and has also become recognized as a contributor to the Hungarian comics school
Hungarian comics
Hungarian comics are comics made in Hungary and by the Hungarian diaspora of the surrounding countries. When dealing with Hungarian comics, one cannot separate comics made by Hungarians from translated foreign matter, since in some eras most of the publications come from the latter group and...
.
Biography
Born in ClujCluj-Napoca
Cluj-Napoca , commonly known as Cluj, is the fourth most populous city in Romania and the seat of Cluj County in the northwestern part of the country. Geographically, it is roughly equidistant from Bucharest , Budapest and Belgrade...
(Kolozsvár), Lívia Rusz was from a Hungarian-Romanian family. She grew up in a mixed environment, among local Hungarians and Romanians
Romanians
The Romanians are an ethnic group native to Romania, who speak Romanian; they are the majority inhabitants of Romania....
, 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
Caile Ferate Române
Căile Ferate Române is the official designation of the state railway carrier of Romania. Romania has a railway network of of which are electrified and the total track length is . The network is significantly interconnected with other European railway networks, providing pan-European passenger...
employee, amateur artist and calligrapher
Calligraphy
Calligraphy is a type of visual art. It is often called the art of fancy lettering . A contemporary definition of calligraphic practice is "the art of giving form to signs in an expressive, harmonious and skillful manner"...
, 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
Art and Design University of Cluj-Napoca
The Art and Design University is an art university located in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. It was founded on November 15, 1925, as the Fine Arts School of Cluj.-Faculties:The University has 2 faculties:* Faculty of Graphic Arts...
upon passing her baccalaureate examination
Romanian Baccalaureate
The Bacalaureat is an exam held in Romania when one graduates high school .Unlike the French Baccalaureate, the Romanian one has a single degree...
, 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
Conservatism
Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...
", 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.
At that stage in her life, Lívia Rusz began collaborating with specialized magazines for children. With time, her work in the comics genre came to be influenced by Jean Cézard, French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
creator of Arthur le fantôme justicier
Arthur le fantôme justicier
Arthur le fantôme justicier is a character in a comic book strip created by Jean Cézard , first published in Vaillant #449 from December 20, 1953...
for Pif gadget
Pif gadget
Pif Gadget was a French comic magazine for children that ran from 1969 to 1993 and 2004 to 2009. Its audience peaked in the early 1970s.-History:Created as an outlet of the French Communist Party, it was initially entitled Le Jeune Patriote...
, and one of the few foreign cartoonists to be known in Romania. The first local publication to employ Rusz was the Hungarian-language
Hungarian language
Hungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....
Napsugár, where she first met writer Sándor Fodor, with whom she collaborated on the cycle of books Csipike (known as Piticul Cipi in Romanian). This contribution brought her to the attention of Lucia Olteanu, editor of Luminiţa, a Bucharest
Bucharest
Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....
-based and Romanian-language periodical. Rusz accepted the offer for collaboration, and, with Olteanu, created the comic strips Răţoiul Mac ("Mac the Duck"; Hungarian: Mákvirág) and Cocofifi (or Kokó). These earned Rusz a large following among the young public, and she also began collaborating with the youth journals Arici Pogonici and Cutezătorii. Her other projects in comics included a rendition of L. Frank Baum
L. Frank Baum
Lyman Frank Baum was an American author of children's books, best known for writing The Wonderful Wizard of Oz...
's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a children's novel written by L. Frank Baum and illustrated by W. W. Denslow. Originally published by the George M. Hill Company in Chicago on May 17, 1900, it has since been reprinted numerous times, most often under the name The Wizard of Oz, which is the name of...
, as well as the comic strips Maimuţa Kio ("Kio the Monkey", with a text by Ovidiu Zotta), redrawings of the Mac and Cocofifi originals, and Dan Buzdugan ("Dan the Mace", a medieval fantasy
Medieval fantasy
Medieval fantasy is a subgenre of fantasy that encompasses medieval era high fantasy and sometimes simply represents fictitious versions of historic events. This subgenre is common among role-playing games, text-based roleplaying, and high-fantasy literature....
series, distinguished among her contributions for its more realistic visual style).
By then, Rusz had also started work in illustration, primarily as a cover art
Cover art
Cover art is the illustration or photograph on the outside of a published product such as a book , magazine, comic book, video game , DVD, CD, videotape, or music album. The art has a primarily commercial function, i.e...
ist for various local publishing houses, including Editura Ion Creangă
Editura Ion Creangă
Editura Ion Creangă was a publishing house based in Bucharest, Romania. Founded as a state-run company under communist rule and named after the 19th century writer Ion Creangă, it ranked high among Romanian publishers of children's literature, fantasy literature and science fiction...
and Editura Tineretului. Her work was remarked by writer and Ion Creangă manager Tiberiu Utan, and Rusz became a permanent collaborator of the brand. During her time with Editura Ion Creangă, she applied her art to editions of Wilhelm Hauff
Wilhelm Hauff
Wilhelm Hauff was a German poet and novelist.-Early life:Hauff was born in Stuttgart, the son of August Friedrich Hauff, a secretary in the ministry of foreign affairs, and Hedwig Wilhelmine Elsaesser Hauff...
's Märchen (as Basme), and reprints of classical works for children in Romanian literature
Literature of Romania
Romanian literature is literature written by Romanian authors, although the term may also be used to refer to all literature written in the Romanian language.Eugène Ionesco is one of the foremost playwrights of the Theatre of the Absurd....
: Nicolae Constantin Batzaria
Nicolae Constantin Batzaria
Nicolae Constantin Batzaria, Besaria, Basarya or Bazaria , was a Macedonian-born Aromanian cultural activist, Ottoman statesman and Romanian writer...
's Poveşti de aur ("Golden Stories") and Ion Creangă
Ion Creanga
Ion Creangă was a Moldavian-born Romanian writer, raconteur and schoolteacher. A main figure in 19th century Romanian literature, he is best known for his Childhood Memories volume, his novellas and short stories, and his many anecdotes...
's collected fairy tale
Fairy tale
A fairy tale is a type of short story that typically features such folkloric characters, such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, dwarves, giants or gnomes, and usually magic or enchantments. However, only a small number of the stories refer to fairies...
s and Childhood Memories
Childhood Memories (Creangă)
Childhood Memories is one of the main literary contributions of Romanian author Ion Creangă...
. Also during that interval, Lívia Rusz became the first Romanian illustrator of J. R. R. Tolkien
J. R. R. Tolkien
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College,...
's work, when she contributed drawings for The Hobbit
The Hobbit
The Hobbit, or There and Back Again, better known by its abbreviated title The Hobbit, is a fantasy novel and children's book by J. R. R. Tolkien. It was published on 21 September 1937 to wide critical acclaim, being nominated for the Carnegie Medal and awarded a prize from the New York Herald...
(in its original 1975 edition, marketed by Editura Ion Creangă). While working on this project, she was reportedly unable to compare her renditions of hobbit
Hobbit
Hobbits are a fictional diminutive race who inhabit the lands of Middle-earth in J. R. R. Tolkien's fiction.Hobbits first appeared in the novel The Hobbit, in which the main protagonist, Bilbo Baggins, is the titular hobbit...
s, Elves
Elf (Middle-earth)
In J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, Elves are one of the races that inhabit a fictional Earth, often called Middle-earth, and set in the remote past. They appear in The Hobbit and in The Lord of the Rings, but their complex history is described more fully in The Silmarillion...
or Orcs
Orc (Middle-earth)
In J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy writings, Orcs or Orks are a race of creatures who are used as soldiers and henchmen by both the greater and lesser villains of The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings — Morgoth, Sauron and Saruman...
with any previous portrayals by other artists, owing to the scarcity of foreign literature sources in Romania—her work therefore owed much to imagination.
In 1987, two years before the December Revolution
Romanian Revolution of 1989
The Romanian Revolution of 1989 was a series of riots and clashes in December 1989. These were part of the Revolutions of 1989 that occurred in several Warsaw Pact countries...
toppled communism, Rusz decided to leave Romania for West Germany
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
. This gesture was a consequence of nationalist
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
and national communist
National communism
The term National Communism describes the ethnic minority communist currents that arose in the former Russian Empire after Vladimir Lenin's Bolshevik Party seized power in October 1917....
policies adopted by the regime of Nicolae Ceauşescu
Nicolae Ceausescu
Nicolae Ceaușescu was a Romanian Communist politician. He was General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 to 1989, and as such was the country's second and last Communist leader...
and specifically targeting some of Romania's ethnic minorities
Minorities of Romania
Officially, 10.5% of Romania's population is represented by minorities . The principal minorities in Romania are Hungarians and Roma people, with a declining German population and smaller numbers of Poles in Bucovina...
. According to writer György Györfi-Deák, Ceauşescu "gave a hard time to the Hungarians", and Rusz personally was "harassed by the dictator's politruks
Political commissar
The political commissar is the supervisory political officer responsible for the political education and organisation, and loyalty to the government of the military...
and Securitate
Securitate
The Securitate was the secret police agency of Communist Romania. Previously, the Romanian secret police was called Siguranţa Statului. Founded on August 30, 1948, with help from the Soviet NKVD, the Securitate was abolished in December 1989, shortly after President Nicolae Ceaușescu was...
men". After a short stay in Germany, Rusz settled in Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
, Hungary, where she owns a villa
Villa
A villa was originally an ancient Roman upper-class country house. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the fall of the Roman Republic, villas became small farming compounds, which were increasingly fortified in Late Antiquity,...
. She continued her activity, becoming a noted contributor to the Hungarian comic school
Hungarian comics
Hungarian comics are comics made in Hungary and by the Hungarian diaspora of the surrounding countries. When dealing with Hungarian comics, one cannot separate comics made by Hungarians from translated foreign matter, since in some eras most of the publications come from the latter group and...
(with albums such as Miskati közbelép, "Miskati Intervenes"). The change was described by the artist herself as a difficult one: "Even plants will suffer when moved from one pot to another; it was not easy for me either to build up my new roots, but as long as forces permit me and I can still work it means I am alive."
Cultural impact
In Romania itself, where she was among the few female comics artists, Lívia Rusz has come to be described as a leading contributor to the genres she covered in her work. Györfi-Deák wrote: "throughout her long artistic career, Rusz Lívia has been leading us through an enchanted universe, depicted with unique sensitivity and grace, unveiling through drawings all that is beautiful and worthy in the world". Noted by visual artist Arina Stonescu as one of the three main illustrators employed by Editura Ion Creangă (alongside Val Munteanu and Eugen TaruEugen Taru
Eugen Taru was a Romanian graphic artist, best known for his work in the political cartoon, caricature, comic strip and book illustration genres...
), she drew particular critical attention for Childhood Memories. Deemed "legendary" by Györfi-Deák, the volume also led Arina Stonescu to write: "I often imagine the fascinating world of the storyteller Ion Creangă only populated by Livia Rusz's girls and boys in national costumes
Romanian dress
Romanian dress refers to the traditional clothing worn by Romanians, who live primarily in Romania and Moldova, with smaller communities in Ukraine and Serbia. Today, a strong majority of Romanians wear Western-style dress on most occasions, and the garments described here largely fell out of use...
."
Rusz was described as "the greatest creator of comic strips in Romania" by comics historiographer Dodo Niţă, who granted Mac and Cocofifi the second place in an all-time chart of Romanian comics. Her activity under communism nevertheless coincided with a decline in the overall impact of Romanian comics: while exercising ideological control over the comic strip scene, the Romanian Communist Party
Romanian Communist Party
The Romanian Communist Party was a communist political party in Romania. Successor to the Bolshevik wing of the Socialist Party of Romania, it gave ideological endorsement to communist revolution and the disestablishment of Greater Romania. The PCR was a minor and illegal grouping for much of the...
reputedly preferred to invest in animation
Animation
Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...
, seeing it as a more effective propaganda
Propaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
tool. In this context, Rusz and Eugen Taru were among those who still produced comics able to reach the general public (a category which also included, according to one assessment, Ion Deak, Pompiliu Dumitrescu, Puiu Manu, Vintilă Mihăescu, Dumitru Negrea and Ion Popescu-Gopo
Ion Popescu-Gopo
Ion Popescu-Gopo was a Romanian graphic artist and animator, but also writer, movie director and actor born in Bucharest, Romania. He was a prominent personality in the Romanian cinematography and the founder of the modern Romanian cartoon school. He was, together with Liviu Ciulei and Mirel...
). Her work in the field was also subject to a post-1989 revival in interest. It was a feature of reference works published in 1996 and 2005 by Dodo Niţă, and the artist herself a special guest at the Romanian-Hungarian Comics Salon, organized in Budapest by the Romanian Cultural Institute
Romanian Cultural Institute
The Romanian Cultural Institute is a state-funded institution that promotes Romanian culture and civilization in Romania and abroad. The ICR was formerly set up through reorganization of the Romanian Cultural Foundation and Romanian Cultural Publishing Foundation...
. Niţă also joined up with Ferenc Kiss to write and publish a the first monograph
Monograph
A monograph is a work of writing upon a single subject, usually by a single author.It is often a scholarly essay or learned treatise, and may be released in the manner of a book or journal article. It is by definition a single document that forms a complete text in itself...
on Rusz, which saw print in 2009. It included homage pieces from two of her fans, historian Adrian Cioroianu
Adrian Cioroianu
Adrian Mihai Cioroianu is a Romanian historian, politician, journalist, and essayist. A lecturer for the History Department at the University of Bucharest, he is the author of several books dealing with Romanian history...
and writer-diplomat Mircea Opriţă. In reference to the artist's overall contribution, the latter noted: "In addition to talent, an artist specializing in graphic art for children needs to have an outstanding soul."
Lívia Rusz first became known outside Hungary and Romania during the 1970s and '80s, when Mac or Cofofifi were translated into English, German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
and Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
. The 1980s version of the two volumes were published in countries of the Eastern Bloc
Eastern bloc
The term Eastern Bloc or Communist Bloc refers to the former communist states of Eastern and Central Europe, generally the Soviet Union and the countries of the Warsaw Pact...
and beyond (in Hungary, East Germany and Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
). While the Tolkien edition registered much success in Romania, it became internationally known only in the decades after 1989, when Rusz's illustrations were republished by Douglas A. Anderson
Douglas A. Anderson
Douglas Allen Anderson is an author and editor on the subjects of fantasy and medieval literature, specializing in textual analysis of the works of J. R. R...
.
External links
- Tales of two Reigns. Children and Childhood, image gallery for the Romanian Cultural InstituteRomanian Cultural InstituteThe Romanian Cultural Institute is a state-funded institution that promotes Romanian culture and civilization in Romania and abroad. The ICR was formerly set up through reorganization of the Romanian Cultural Foundation and Romanian Cultural Publishing Foundation...
's Plural Magazine, Nr. 30/2007 - Rusz's illustrations for The Hobbit, in Pro-Scris webzine, Nr. 2/2004