László Szabó

William J. Barney wrote the following profile for László Szabó in The Art and Artists of Buffalo, Adventures in Western New York History, published by the Buffalo & Erie County Historical Society in 1979:

Laszlo Szabo, who came to Buffalo in 1924, was born in 1895 in Budapest, Hungary, and studied art there in the Royal Academy, at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris and at the Art Students League in New York. He became one of the city’s leading portraitists, and his paintings hang in many Buffalo area homes and public buildings. Internationally known and a fellow of the British Royal Society of Arts, he was acclaimed in Budapest as one of the four outstanding Hungarian-born painters in the world. Szabo conducted art classes in his studio and outdoor summer landscape classes for more than 40 years. He died in October 1970.

Szabó was a member of the Buffalo Society of Artists, as well as “The Rationalists,” who were staunch defenders of realistic art. With Alexander Levy and others, he formed “the Society for Sanity in Art, to oppose and lobby against what they considered “the ‘fraud’ of modern art.” In 1953 he founded the Fine Arts League which was “dedicated to the preservation of traditional, representational paintings.” He served as president of the organization until his death. According to the published obituary, “In 1941, Mr. Szabo married Gladys G. Bower. Their children are George A., Lester J. and Betty Jane (Williams).” (NW)