"He was perhaps the most hidden artist in the whole of post-WWII Transylvanian art, one of the most sensitive painters of the period, one of the most dreamless dreamers and one of the most vicious victims. Béla Olajos's painting was destined to rekindle the transylvanian love of life values that permeated and shone through his vision, in a new and strange guise." (Zoltán Banner)

Born on 2 December 1910 in Gödöllő, from a family of bourgeois intellectuals.

From 1931 he studied philosophy in Veszprém for four years.

Between 1934 and 1939 he studied painting at the Budapest College of Fine Arts under István Szőnyi. Among his teachers was Vilmos Aba Novák.

In 1939 he graduated as a painter and drawing teacher.

In 1941, following the Vienna decision, he was appointed deputy teacher in Satu Mare.

In 1944 he marries Magdolna Váczy, a journalist.

From 1945, he regularly participates in joint exhibitions, and several of his paintings are sent to Switzerland, Germany and Sweden through the Romanian Art and Art Fund.

In the 1960s his health failed, and in order to recover he often visited the family of his daughter Zsuzsanna in Miercurea Ciuc and found new painting subjects in the mountains around Harghita.

In 1975, an album of the city's artists, including Béla Olajos, was published in Satu Mare.

He died on 18 April 1991 in Miercurea Ciuc.

In 1995, his widow, Magdolna Olajos Váczy (1909-1999), also in Miercurea Ciuc, wrote a joint memorial book.

In 2002, he was given a special entry in the biographical encyclopaedia of Hungarian painters and graphic artists published at the time.

His memorial exhibition will be held in Satu Mare in 2008.

In 2010, Magdolna Váczy's paintings will be exhibited at the Kriterion House in Miercurea Ciuc : Before the Fog descends, Zoltán Banner's monograph on Béla Olajos, and the and an exhibition of Béla Olajos' legacy.

In December 2019, the Szekler Museum of Ciuc will organise an exhibition of his small-scale works, which have never been seen before.