Elise Hawthorne
A great man died this week; not good news. But saying that, I’d like to celebrate the life of George Surtees by posting an article I wrote in 2018, published in JewishCare’s Keeping In Touch magazine. RIP dear George, gifted artist and a gentle, kind man who will be greatly missed by all whose lives he touched in so many ways.
Meeting 95-year-old George Surtees was both a delight and a lesson in the word artistry. To be able to look through his design archives was like peeking into the mind of a creative perfectionist with an encyclopaedic knowledge of design stretching from the baroque to the far east to futuristic modernism and everything in between.
Born Georg Nicolaus Spitz in Budapest in 1922, into a family not overly impressed with his artistic talent. George followed his heart and attended the city’s renowned Academy of Fine Arts between 1938 and 1942 gaining a Masters Degree in decorative painting; learning about the history of design which was to serve his professional life so well as an adult in Australia.
Just before WW2 George met the love of his life and future wife, Suzie (nee Szigeti), but the romance was cut short when George was conscripted into the Hungarian army as slave labour as he was Jewish and seen as an enemy of the state. George and his fellow Jewish prisoners suffered starvation and horrific living conditions in labour camps in the Ukraine forests, living on a ration of watery soup, where death and suffering were commonplace.
Near the end of the war, as the Russian army approached, George and some fellow inmates escaped heading back to Hungary in search of loved ones, many coming home to unbelievable heartache and loss. George eventually found his beloved Suzie via the Red Cross; they both knew they had to try and create another life far from war-torn Europe.
Immigrating to Australia at the beginning of the 1950s, George and Suzie eventually settled in Sydney, raising their two sons Tony and Geoffrey. George embarked on a highly successful career as a well-respected designer, which encompassed work for more than 300 clients over the span of fifty plus years, specialising in building interiors, exhibitions, furniture and lighting design. He was known as a total concept designer of iconic buildings such as the Boulevard Hotel in Sydney and high-end houses and apartments, designing up until 2003 when he retired.
George Surtees is one of Australia’s most important post WW2 immigrant European designers, since his retirement he has continued his love of drawing, documenting his war years in memory of the many men who didn’t survive. George Surtees in my books is a national treasure, a unique Australian artist.
“The work of art must seize upon you, wrap you up in itself, carry you away. It is the means by which the artist conveys his passion; it is the current which he puts forth which sweeps you along in his passion.” Pierre-Auguste Renoir
- Top photo is of the late George Surtees with his forced labour camp drawing
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