Dame isabel piczek biography

Hungarian-American painter (1927–2016)

Isabel Helen Piczek (November 14, 1927 – September 29, 2016) was a Hungarian born ecclesiastical artist perhaps best known for her study of the Shroud of Turin, and who lived in Los Angeles.

Her sister, Edith Piczek [died 2012], was also a noted religious artist.

Piczek, and her sister Edith, were born in Hungary, where her father Zoltán Piczek (born 1897) was a noted artist and art professor, and graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest.

After World War II, the sisters fled to Rome during the Communist dictatorship in Hungary to pursue their work in sacred art.

Isabel piczek art

There, whilst still only teenagers, they won a 1949 competition to paint a mural at Rome’s Pontifical Biblical Institute.

By 1955 they were in Canada and shortly after arrived in Los Angeles to pursue their combined talents.

In Las Vegas, Edith designed the 2,000 square-foot mosaic on the façade of Guardian Angel Cathedral that illustrated the roles