Fraternity-Testvériség, 1966 (44. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1966-03-01 / 3. szám

6

FRATERNITY

GOLD MEDAL AWARDED TO SÁNDOR BODÓ

We should rather write about another gold medal since the Medal of Honor recently presented to our distinguished compatriot for his wonderful painting by the National Arts Club represents just another glorious link in the long chain of his art rewards.

Sándor Bodó was born in Szamosszeg, Hungary, February 13, 1920. His early evidence of fine artistic talent prompted the Hungarian government to grant him a four-year scholarship to attend the Hungarian Academy of Arts in Budapest. As he smilingly confessed during our last conversation, he was very little influenced by his otherwise famous professors and masters. He acquired professional skill from them, but he was still feverishly searching for his own individual way of expressing himself ... he was not a follower.

Graduating from this institution, he participated in the work of restoring the art of churches, particularly the sculpture ornamentation and repainting of murals in the famous Mathias Coronation Church in Buda.

After the Communist take-over he stayed in Budapest. As an uncompromising individualist and a fearless champion of free expression, he soon got into conflict with the Red rulers. An outstanding engraver, he won the assignment to design huge posters on which the so-called ‘peace bonds” were advertised by the government. Bodó placed the replica of a bond in the middle of the placard, but wrote on it with small letters: “This bond is not worth a red penny . . . the Communist Party will fall . . . fear Communism!” Before the regime discovered Bodó’s ingenious trick, a few posters reached the public and the widely publicized bond issues ruthlessly forced upon the Hungarians became a laughing matter.

He almost paid for this “joke” with his life. After lengthy and “painful” interrogation, he was sentenced to four years in prison in August 1955. He did not fully serve his time since together with tens of thousands of other innocent victims of the ill-remembered Rákosi era, he was freed by the freedom fighters in 1956.

After a few days of long awaited freedom, Soviet armored divisions over-ran his country, and the heroic resistance was mercilessly stampeded into mud and blood. He escaped with his wife and young son under the most miraculous circumstances. They soon emigrated to the United States.