- Desiderius Orban
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Desiderius Orban OBE (26 November 1884 – 4 October 1986) was a renowned Hungarian-born Australian painter, printmaker and teacher. He was influenced by the paintings of Henri Matisse, Vincent van Gogh and Paul Cézanne.
Contents
Biography
Born Orbán Dezső in Győr, Hungary, in 1884, he moved to Budapest in 1888 where he was taught by János Pentelei Molnár. He studied philosophy, physics and mathematics at the University of Budapest. In 1905, he commenced compulsory military service with the Austro-Hungarian army. In 1906, he moved to France where he studied briefly at the Académie Julian, but gave up academic training to study alone. In 1909 he founded a group of artists known as Keresők (The Seekers), renamed in 1911 to The Eight (Nyolcak)), bringing contemporary painting to Hungary. In these early years he came into contact with Pablo Picasso, Amedeo Modigliani and Georges Braque.
In 1912-13 he was again called up for military service in the Balkan Wars. In 1915, he married Alice Vajda, a doctor serving in the army. In 1931, he founded the Arts and Crafts Academy, Atelier, in Budapest. In 1937, his painting 'Cathedral in Eger' (1928) was seized by the Nazis from Nuremberg Museum collection, and never recovered. In 1939, he fled Budapest, travelling to London, then to Sydney, where he settled. In 1942, he enlisted in the Australian Army as a private. He began his own art school, and also worked as a spray painter in a Sydney factory. In 1944, one of his paintings was purchased by the Art Gallery of New South Wales.
From 1946 to 1949, Desiderius Orban was President of the NSW branch of the Contemporary Art Society of Australia. In 1953, he was elected Chairman of the UNESCO National Committee of Visual Arts. From 1957 to 1967, he conducted summer schools in painting at the University of New England, Armidale. He was a judge for the 1960 Sulman Prize at the Art Gallery of New South Wales.
In 1967, and again in 1971, he won the Blake Prize for Religious Art.
In 1975, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his service to the arts. In 1982, Orban was awarded the Gold Medal of the Order of the Hungarian Flag by the People's Republic of Hungary.
His students included Yvonne Audette, Margo Lewers, John Olsen, Pat Kelk Graham, Ruth Faerber (b. 1922), Panni Roseth, Olive Hughes, John Ogburn, Ruth Burgess, Virginia Cuppaidge, James Clifford (1936-1987), Aileen Rogers (1916-1994), Sheila McDonald.
Desiderius Orban died in Sydney in 1986, aged 101.
A collection of Desiderius Orban related research material is housed at Lane Cove Library in Sydney.
Selected solo exhibitions
- 1917 Solo exhibition, Konyves Kalman Gallery, Budapest
- 1923 Helikon Gallery, Budapest
- 1924-31 Various solo exhibitions in Hungary, Romania and Czechoslovakia
- 1943 Notanda Gallery, Sydney
- 1944 Farmer's Blaxland Gallery, Sydney
- 1946 Macquarie Galleries, Sydney; Myer Art Gallery, Melbourne
- 1950 David Jones Art Gallery, Sydney
- 1952, 59 Macquarie Galleries, Sydney
- 1955 John Martin Art Gallery, Adelaide; Bissietta Art Gallery, Sydney
- 1957 Brummel's Gallery, Melbourne
- 1960 Newcastle Regional Art Gallery
- 1963 Komon Gallery, Sydney; War Memorial Gallery of Fine Arts, University of Sydney; Douglas Galleries, Brisbane; Ipswich Arts Centre, Queensland
- 1964-68 Komon Gallery, Sydney
- 1969 Retrospective, Newcastle Regional Art Gallery
- 1969 Von Bertouch Galleries, Newcastle; Holdsworth Galleries, Sydney
- 1970, 71 Toorak Art Gallery, Melbourne
- 1972 Reid Gallery, Brisbane; Holdsworth Galleries, Sydney
- 1973 Langsam Galleries, Melbourne; The Sculpture Gallery, Sydney; Reid Gallery, Brisbane; Skinner Gallery, Perth
- 1975 Retrospective, Art Gallery of New South Wales
- 1976 David Sumner Gallery, Adelaide
- 1977 Artarmon Gallery, Sydney
- 1978 Barry Stern Gallery, Sydney; Queen Street Gallery, Sydney
- 1979 Trinity Delmar Gallery, Sydney
- 1980 New South Wales House, London
- 1981 Niagara Lane Gallery, Melbourne
Selected group exhibitions
- 1909-12 Exhibited with the Keresok Group, then Nycolcak Group, in Budapest and Berlin
- 1914 Exhibition of Hungarian Artists, Vienna Kunstlerhaus
- 1918 Ernst Gallery, Budapest
- 1932 Still Life Exhibition, National Salon, Budapest – Hungarian representative
- 1940 Macquarie Galleries, Sydney
- 1943 Became a regular exhibitor with the Contemporary Art Society and the Society of Artists
- 'Australia in Pictures', David Jones Art Gallery, Sydney
- 1944 'Contemporary Australian Painting', Art Gallery of New South Wales
- 'One Hundred and Fifty Years of Painting in Australia 1794-1944', Art Gallery of NSW
- 1945 The Herald Exhibition of 'Present Day Australian Art', Lower Town Hall, Melbourne
- 1948 Began exhibiting with The Sydney Group
- 1950 'Sydney Art Today', Finney's Gallery, Brisbane; Macquarie Galleries, Sydney
- 1951 'Jubilee Exhibition of Australian Art'
- 1952 'Australian Painting', Art Gallery of NSW; Macquarie Galleries, Sydney
- 1954 Royal Tour Exhibition, The Fellowship of Australian Artists
- 1954-56 Macquarie Galleries, Sydney
- 1956 'Contemporary Australian Painting', Pacific Loan Exhibition, Art Gallery of NSW and on board the 'SS Orcades'
- 1959 'Exposition des peintures du group Australian et Baltes', Gallerie Royale, Paris
- 1963 Australian Art Exhibition, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
- 1971 'Hungarian Avant Garde 1909-1930', Munich and Milan
- 1971-82 Numerous group exhibitions in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Hobart and Perth
Awards
- 1929 Gold medal, International Exhibition in Barcelona, Spain (still life painting)
- 1957 Wagga Wagga Art Prize
- 1967 Blake Prize
- 1967 Muswellbrook Art Prize
- 1971 Blake Prize
- 1971 Wollongong Art Prize
- 1974 International Co-operation Art Award
- 1975 Awarded an OBE for his service to the arts
Collections
- Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest
- Municipal Art Gallery, Szeged, Hungary
- Nuremberg Museum, Germany
- National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
- Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
- Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
- National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
- Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane
- Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart
- Western Australian Art Gallery, Perth
- Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, Victoria
- Benalla Art Gallery, Victoria
- Geelong Art Gallery, Victoria
- Hamilton Art Gallery, Victoria
- Horsham Regional Art Gallery, Victoria
- Mildura Arts Centre, Victoria
- Newcastle Regional Art Gallery, NSW
- Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston
- University Art Gallery, University of Melbourne
- Municipal collections: Wollongong, Muswellbrook
References
- Present Day Artists in Australia (1969), edited by Mervyn Horton. Ure Smith
External links
Categories:- Australian painters
- Australian people of Hungarian descent
- Australian Jews
- 1884 births
- 1986 deaths
- Hungarian painters
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