State Library of NSW biographical summary. “Georg N. Szirtes fled Hungary in 1949 to escape communist persecution as his father was a businessman. Surtees was also Jewish but despite persecution during World War II, his culture does not seem to have been a factor in his flight.
He arrived in Sydney, from Vienna, ca. 1951, taking the name George N. Surtees. Qualified as an artist, having trained in the Academy of Fine Arts, Budapest, he was also interested in industrial design. Initially he worked in Sydney for people like Paul Kafka but by the late 1950’s he struck out on his own, doing commercial display work. He also began to work as an interior designer.
His heyday seems to have been the 1960’s-1970’s, when he did a lot of work for companies like Westfield, and Frank Lowy and John Saunders. He worked on the Boulevard Hotel in the early 1970’s and worked his Jewish networks, often called upon to design interiors reminiscent of the Eastern European interiors his clients had fled. He also worked as a graphic artist and examples of the range of his work are in this collection. Biographical note from Mitchell Library file.”
- Writers:
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- Date written:
- 2015
- Last updated:
- 2015
