Writing this short book was clearly a labour of love for Romanian-born Ladislau G. Hajos, who is the nephew of the late Hungarian artist Gyorgy Ruzicskay. Unfortunately, the book's quality suffers from not being written by a professional author.

The subtitle is somewhat misleading as only four of the twelve chapters are directly a biography of Ruzicskay; the first four are more of a family history and the last four a chronicle of Hajos's struggle with the City of Szarvas about Ruzicskay's artistic legacy.

The book does bear witness, though, to Hajos's determination to promote the work of his uncle after his death, and to pay tribute to Ruzicskay's heroism in hiding and saving Jews in Hungary during the Second World War. In fact, the chapter on "Ruzicskay and the Nazi Occupation" is the book's most significant. Overall, as a book demonstrating a promise being fulfilled, it has some strength despite having, as the author admits, "no ambition to be a critique of art or a historical document."

More is needed though about Ruzicskay's art itself, as the poor quality reproductions only give a tantalizing glimpse of the artist's quality. Appendix 1, "Important Events of Ruzicskay's Life," also hints that a full artistic biography remains to be written. As Ruzicskay had artist friends like Picasso and Matisse, there would be scope to explore some very significant artistic links.

- Rambles
written by Andy Jurgis
published 16 April 2005