Laszlo Matulay Auto Biography (1912 – 1999)
I was born June 16, 1912 in Vienna, Austria of Hungarian parents. There I attended the Latin-school. From 1930 to 1935 I attended the Academy of Applied Arts. In October 1935 I immigrated to the United States. I am married to a retired school teacher, Harriette. We have two grown children.
On arrival in the U.S.A. I was invited to join the W.P.A. Art Project. I declined, feeling it would not be proper for a newly arrived immigrant to accept. I was lucky enough to soon find freelance work, doing production illustrations. Later I found employment in textile design, advertising agencies and commercial art studios. During all this time I spent (more than wisely) doing “fine art”, graphics and oils. In 1938 I received my first real break from Mr. Alexey Brodovich, A.D. for Harper’s Bazaar. He commissioned me to do illustrations for fiction. This encouragement, together with an article and repros of my work in AD Magazine in the same year, helped me, strangely enough, to go on with my night work “fine art”.
In 1941 or 1942 “Free World Magazine” invited me to attend the roundtable discussions of international statesmen and intellectuals to do portrait sketches. Later this organization became the United Nations. I worked at this monthly assignment until my induction in the U.S. Army. From 1943 to 1946 I served in the U.S. Army as a draftsman and instructor at N.C.O. During this time my work appeared in Yank Magazine and in a regimental newspaper. After my discharge from the service I
began to freelance, doing mostly illustrations for books and magazines. Later I accepted positions as art director in Ad agencies and publishing houses.
Clients: Alpine Fine Arts Collection, Ltd. N.Y.; American Heritage, N.Y.; Columbia Publishing CO. Inc., N.J.; Fortune Magazine, Esquire Magazine, Gosset and Dunlap, Harper’s Bazaar, C.P. Putnam’s Son (6 books of Art Buchwald), Viking Press, World Over Magazine, World Publishers and others.
The most satisfying work I did in this category were booklets and film strips on family planning for developing nations in Central America, South East Asia, Africa, the Near East and Egypt. Cassel of London, George Washington University and Informations Materials Press Publishers were my clients.
Shows: Public Library, N.Y., Museum of Modern Art, N.Y., N.Y. World Fair, 1939; Atlanta, Ga.; Allentown,
Pa.; and local one man and group shows. I am represented in several private collections.
In 1981, The Alpine Fine Arts Collection, Ltd. published my book “Then and Now, a novel as told in
112 drawings.”
Guest Lecturing: N.Y.U., Moravian College, University of Trenton, The Art Center of Clinton, N.J.