designer, illustrator, sculptor and cartoonist, was born in Sydney on 10 January 1914. Although best known for his designs for the original Australian decimal currency banknotes in 1966, he had briefly drawn gag cartoons and story illustrations for Australia: National Journal and Australia Week-end Book in the 1940s, including vol.1 of the latter (1942), eg “John, darling, we’re going to have a baby!” (Thurberish wife jumping on stool) and a rough cartoon of Aussie soldiers for a story, 'The Guardsman’, by N.X. Anonymous, p.200. Vol.4 (1945) included three of his cartoons, eg “I merely paint what I see” (man on scaffolding painting building), two workmen, plus a good small illustration of two dentists fighting to illustrate G.E. Mortimore’s story, 'Tooth and Nail’ (120).
“In retrospect the gags were corny and do not bear repeating…” – Gordon Andrews, 1993.
His more major work of the 1940s included the range of designs he created for David Jones, his Australian exhibition designs for international Trade Fairs, and many logos, posters and public relations material. He also did public sculptures, eg at Top Ryde, Sydney, and at Cowra, NSW.
He worked overseas in England; including work for the Festival of Britain, London, 1951; Italy and the
USA, designing for Fortnum and Mason in London, Pan American Airlines in New York and Olivetti in Turin. Two of his favourite designs (destroyed) were the 1950s interior design of the
NSW Tourist Bureau in Martin Place and an Australian trade exhibit at Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1962.
Andrews retired to Lovett Bay on the Hawkesbury River until bushfires destroyed his home on his 80th birthday. Fortunately, much of his work of six decades was saved, having been given to the Powerhouse Museum for a major retrospective exhibition just months earlier. The Powerhouse’s Gordon Andrews collection was also shown at a tribute retrospective in 2001, just after he died in Sydney on 17 January 2001, aged 87. He was survived by his former wife, Mary, children Lynn, Richard and Michael, and sister Betty Horsburgh.
- Writers:
- Kerr, Joan
- Date written:
- 1996
- Last updated:
- 2007
