Desiderius Orban
Encyclopedia
Desiderius Orban OBE
(26 November 1884 – 4 October 1986) was a renowned Hungarian
-born Australia
n painter
, printmaker and teacher. He was influenced by the paintings of Henri Matisse
, Vincent van Gogh
and Paul Cézanne
.
, 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.
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(26 November 1884 – 4 October 1986) was a renowned Hungarian
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
-born Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n painter
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
, printmaker and teacher. He was influenced by the paintings of Henri Matisse
Henri Matisse
Henri Matisse was a French artist, known for his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known primarily as a painter...
, Vincent van Gogh
Vincent van Gogh
Vincent Willem van Gogh , and used Brabant dialect in his writing; it is therefore likely that he himself pronounced his name with a Brabant accent: , with a voiced V and palatalized G and gh. In France, where much of his work was produced, it is...
and Paul Cézanne
Paul Cézanne
Paul Cézanne was a French artist and Post-Impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations of the transition from the 19th century conception of artistic endeavour to a new and radically different world of art in the 20th century. Cézanne can be said to form the bridge between late 19th...
.
Biography
Born Orbán Dezső in GyőrGyor
-Climate:-Main sights:The ancient core of the city is Káptalan Hill at the confluence of three rivers: the Danube, Rába and Rábca. Püspökvár, the residence of Győr’s bishops can be easily recognised by its incomplete tower. Győr’s oldest buildings are the 13th-century dwelling tower and the...
, Hungary, in 1884, he moved to Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
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
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
where he studied briefly at the Académie Julian
Académie Julian
The Académie Julian was an art school in Paris, France.Rodolphe Julian established the Académie Julian in 1868 at the Passage des Panoramas, as a private studio school for art students. The Académie Julian not only prepared students to the exams at the prestigious École des Beaux-Arts, but offered...
, 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)
The Eight (Nyolcak)
The Eight was an avant-garde art movement of Hungarian painters active mostly in Budapest from 1909 to 1918.The members of the Eight Róbert Berény, Dezső Czigány, Béla Czóbel, Károly Kernstok, Ödön Márffy, Dezső Orbán, Bertalan Pór, Lajos Tihanyi were primarily inspired by Matisse and the fauvism...
), bringing contemporary painting to Hungary. In these early years he came into contact with Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the...
, Amedeo Modigliani
Amedeo Modigliani
Amedeo Clemente Modigliani was an Italian painter and sculptor who worked mainly in France. Primarily a figurative artist, he became known for paintings and sculptures in a modern style characterized by mask-like faces and elongation of form...
and Georges Braque
Georges Braque
Georges Braque[p] was a major 20th century French painter and sculptor who, along with Pablo Picasso, developed the art style known as Cubism.-Early Life:...
.
In 1912-13 he was again called up for military service in the Balkan Wars
Balkan Wars
The Balkan Wars were two conflicts that took place in the Balkans in south-eastern Europe in 1912 and 1913.By the early 20th century, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia, the countries of the Balkan League, had achieved their independence from the Ottoman Empire, but large parts of their ethnic...
. 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
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, then to Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, where he settled. In 1942, he enlisted in the Australian Army
Australian Army
The Australian Army is Australia's military land force. It is part of the Australian Defence Force along with the Royal Australian Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force. While the Chief of Defence commands the Australian Defence Force , the Army is commanded by the Chief of 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
Art Gallery of New South Wales
The Art Gallery of New South Wales , located in The Domain in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, was established in 1897 and is the most important public gallery in Sydney and the fourth largest in Australia...
.
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
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
National Committee of Visual Arts. From 1957 to 1967, he conducted summer schools in painting at the University of New England
University of New England (Australia)
The University of New England is an Australian public university with approximately 18,000 higher education students. Its original and main campus is located in the city of Armidale in northern New South Wales....
, Armidale
Armidale, New South Wales
Armidale is a city in the Northern Tablelands, New South Wales, Australia. Armidale Dumaresq Shire had a population of 19,485 people according to the 2006 census. It is the administrative centre for the Northern Tablelands region...
. 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
Blake Prize for Religious Art
The Blake Prize for Religious Art is an annual art prize in Australia.The prize was established in 1949 as an incentive to raise the standard of religious art. Founded by Mr R. Morley, the Reverend Michael Scott SJ, Rector of Newman College, University of Melbourne, and lawyer Mrs M. Tenison, it...
.
In 1975, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(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
People's Republic of Hungary
The People's Republic of Hungary or Hungarian People's Republic was the official state name of Hungary from 1949 to 1989 during its Communist period under the guidance of the Soviet Union. The state remained in existence until 1989 when opposition forces consolidated in forcing the regime to...
.
His students included Yvonne Audette, Margo Lewers, John Olsen
John Olsen (artist)
John Henry Olsen, AO, OBE is an Australian artist. Olsen's primary subject of work is landscape.-Biography:John Olsen was born in Newcastle on 21 January 1928 and moved to Bondi Beach with his family in 1935, which began his lifelong fascination with Sydney Harbour...
, Pat Kelk Graham, Ruth Faerber (b. 1922), Panni Roseth, Olive Hughes, John Ogburn
John Ogburn
John Armstrong Ogburn was an Australian painter.-Biography:Born in St Arnaud, Victoria in 1925, Ogburn worked for Shell Co. in Melbourne as an industrial research chemist between 1944 and 1946. During that time he became what he called a "Sunday painter" in oils and watercolours, and did Life...
, Ruth Burgess, Virginia Cuppaidge, James Clifford
James Clifford (artist)
James Clifford was an Australian Modernist painter.He was born in Muswellbrook and in the 1960s moved to Sydney where he began exhibiting at Watters Gallery. He worked in various styles and became distinctive early on, combining hard edge abstraction with Art Nouveau and surreal elements, later...
(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