Makk, Americo Hawaii (b. 1927) PIPE SMOKE oil on canvas, framed signed: lower left H30" W24" *Artist biography: A painter of the Old West, frontier genre in Impressionist style, Americo Makk was born in Hungary and moved to Honolulu, Hawaii. He used books and museums for initial research of his subject matter and then visited Indian reservations and western towns for first-hand observation. He studied at the Hungarian National Academy in Budapest and won a scholarship to Rome, where he won the Vatican Portrait Award. He and his wife Eva Lolusa were both appointed Professors at the Academy de Bellas Artes in Sao Paulo, Brazil. There they became official artists of the Brazilian government. In 1962, they came to New York City to escape Brazil's political instability. He began his western theme painting when the Los Angeles Museum sent him to sketch ranches in California, a subject he also pursued in Texas.