Magyar News, 2001. szeptember-2002. augusztus (12. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
2002-04-01 / 8. szám
Top: Portrait of Wendy. Below left: Winter Camp Scene. Center .Making of a Miracle-Gro Champion. Right: Spirit of Competition THE AMERICAN SCENE THE ART OF JOSEPH CSATARI The American Scene has long been a source of inspiration for many artists. Making an everyday event extraordinary, however, requires more than an artist. Transforming an ordinary scene into an impressive one requires a gifted storyteller. Joseph Csatari has used this gift in his career spanning almost fifty years to illustrate scenes of classic Americana. Joseph Csatari, an internationally esteemed artist and illustrator, is known for his poignant representations of American life. This gifted realist painter has created images for the annual calendars published for the Boy Scouts of America, as well as more than 150 book covers, two United States postage stamps, numerous portraits and a wealth of advertising art for such companies as Nabisco; Roy Rogers, Inc.; Coleman; and State Farm Insurance. His art has appeared in The Saturday Evening Post, Boys' Life, Reader's Digest, Field & Stream, Outdoor Life, and McCall' s. This retrospective exhibition offers examples of artwork from each of the areas of Joseph Csatari's career as a commercial artist as well as other more personal works, which demonstrate his range as a fine artist. Bom in 1929 to Hungarian immigrant parents, Csatari still resides in South River, New Jersey, the small town where he grew up. From an early age he loved drawing and with some encouragement from his older brother John, he decided to pursue art as a career following his graduation from high school. After completing his training at the Newark Academy of Fine Arts he continued his studies at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York. During this time, he worked in the design department of the Westinghouse Corporation in Edison, New Jersey. In 1953 Csatari joined the National Council of the Boy Scouts of America as art director of their advertising department. There he created cover illustrations, advertising promotional pieces and portraits of past presidents of the Boy Scouts of America and also developed concepts for the Boy Scout calendars. In 1973 he became art director in the magazine division of the Boy Scouts of America for Boy's Life magazine. He also began to work Joseph Csatari in his very busy studio Photo: Steve Seeger with illustrator Norman Rockwell creating the paintings which illustrated the Boy Scout calendars. During this time, Csatari assisted Rockwell by making preliminary sketches and gathering models and props for the carefully posed scenes, which were photographed and then used to create the calendar paintings. In 1976, when Rockwell retired, Csatari was chosen by the Boy Scouts of America to continue the calendar illustrations in the Rockwell tradition, the last of which Csatari did in 1990-91. He continues to do other art for the Boy Scouts. Rockwell's influence on Csatari's work is notable. Like Rockwell, Csatari's story-telling ability, humor, and skill in presenting the ordinary as extraordinary enable him to capture scenes from every-
