Laszlo Acs was born in Budapest, Hungary in 1931. After studying at the city's Academy of Fine Arts, he fled to Britain following the 1956 Hungarian Revolution and continued his training at Hornsey College of Art. A graphic designer, painter and illustrator, he worked in advertising and children's publishing and taught at art college and university. He was also regional chairman for the Society of Industrial Artists and Designers. Laszlo Acs died in England on 14 May 2021.
Illustrator, graphic designer, painter and teacher, Laszlo Acs was born in Budapest, Hungary in 1931. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in his native city and began his professional career in Hungary. Following the suppression of the 1956 Hungarian uprising by Soviet forces, he fled to Britain as a refugee, arriving in early 1957 (Kiss-Davies 2011). He subsequently continued his artistic training at Hornsey College of Art in London and was naturalised as a British citizen in 1966. His displacement placed him among a generation of Hungarian artists who established new careers in Britain after the revolution, while maintaining connections with the culture of their homeland. Acs later worked across both fine art and commercial design, developing a particularly extensive career in illustration.
In England, Acs worked in advertising, publicity, television graphics and publishing. By 1975 he had accumulated approximately 18 years' experience in the design field, including work on audiovisual language-teaching materials for the Schools Council and a post as Head of Graphic Design at Independent News Ltd. His commercial work included a poster for The Times, Guinness advertisements and covers for James Bond books. One prominent project was a 25-foot-long 'Welcome to Britain' advertisement for the airline, BOAC and shipping line, Cunard, displayed at Waterloo railway station during the 1960s. He also designed the public-health poster Do Not Poison the Air He Breathes(c. 1960–69), issued by the Central Council for Health Education. The design shows a child with a teddy bear looking towards a hand holding a cigarette, using a simple composition to encourage adults to consider the effects of smoking on children. The poster, printed by Beck and Inchbold Ltd in Leeds, is now in the Science Museum collection.
Acs was a prolific illustrator of books for children and adults, creating covers, line drawings and other artwork over several decades. Early commissions included Geoffrey Palmer and Noel Lloyd's collection Ghosts Go Haunting (1963), whose illustrations were praised in a contemporary review (Grimsby Evening Telegraph 1963, p. 4), and Gillian Avery's Call of the Valley (1966). He also illustrated Penelope Farmer's Emma in Winter (1966), Elizabeth Taylor's Mossy Trotter (1967) and Peggy Appiah's Ring of Gold (1976). His work extended to educational publishing, including R. J. Unstead's Living in Pompeii (1976). Reviewing William Mayne's Max's Dream (1977), the Dorset Echo noted how Acs's line drawings complemented the book's dreamlike quality (1977, p. 19). His illustrations for Bill Gillham’s My Brother Barry (1981), a children’s novel exploring disability and prejudice, were favourably mentioned in the South Norfolk News (1981, p. 13). His contributions to books for adult readers included the cover of Patricia Highsmith's This Sweet Sickness (1963) and lithographs for the Folio Society's edition of Guy de Maupassant's Une Vie(1981). His later projects included Alexander McCall Smith's The Perfect Hamburger (1982) and Rosemary Hayes's Seal Cry (1991), illustrating the longevity of his publishing career.
Alongside his freelance practice, Acs became involved in design education and professional organisations in the southwest of England. By May 1975 he was lecturing at Exeter College of Art and Design, while continuing to accept commercial commissions. That year he became chairman of the newly established Devon and Cornwall area of the Society of Industrial Artists and Designers, an organisation representing practitioners in graphic, industrial and other branches of design. The new group formed part of a South West regional structure and sought to encourage greater cooperation between designers, education and industry. In September 1975 he also served as a judge in the Devon County Road Safety Poster Competition, which attracted around 1,300 entries from local schools. By 1997 he was lecturing in illustration at the University of Plymouth's Exeter campus and living in Exmouth, Devon.
In 1992, the Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter held a retrospective of Acs's work, accompanied by a catalogue by Tony Clayden that reproduced his pen-and-ink drawing Bartók: Cantata Profana (1969), reflecting his continuing links to Hungarian artistic culture. A further retrospective was held at Plymouth City Art Gallery in 1997. Research accompanying the exhibition Works by Hungarian Émigré Artists on ’56, curated by art historian György Sümegi at Műcsarnok in Budapest in 2018–19, identified Acs among artists whose work responded to the 1956 Hungarian uprising. Exploring how Hungarian artists in exile commemorated the revolution, the exhibition included works by fellow Hungarian refugee to Britain, Victor Ambrus, while its accompanying research also included Gyorgy Gordon and Erno Szegedi, who had likewise settled in England. Laszlo Acs died in England on 14 May 2021. In the UK public domain his work is represented in the Science Museum collection.
Irene Iacono