page_title: Americo Makk
section_title: Brazil and life as the Makks (1949–1962)
hierarchical_section_title: Americo Makk / Career / Brazil and life as the Makks (1949–1962)
caption_attribution_description: Portrait of Chief Ajuricaba leading warriors against invading Portuguese forces
context_page_description: Americo Makk was a painter and portrait artist originally from Hungary, who immigrated to the United States with his family in 1962 to escape the communist movement in Brazil. His notable 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 Edward Teller, Eva Gabor, Barbara Sinatra, Ray Price, and Barbara Carrera.
context_section_description: In 1949, Americo Makk followed Eva Holusa and moved to São Paulo, Brazil. 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 where Americo adopted the Portuguese translation for his name. 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. 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.
caption: One of Four in a Series, Mural of Brazilian Chief Ajuricaba, by Americo Makk
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