We were very pleased to host Arpad Bak, a PhD student from the University of Leeds, on a recent placement. Arpad conducted in-depth research into stories of migration to the Wakefield District.
In this guest blog post, he recounts the story of artist, György Gordon. As part of his research, Arpad interviewed Gordon’s daughter, Anna.
We’re very grateful to Arpad and Anna for this fascinating article.
Wakefield-based Hungarian-British painter, György Gordon (1924-2005) means to his hometown what Jacob Kramer (1892-1962) means to neighbouring Leeds.
Both artists arrived in the UK as refugees from East Central Europe in the 20th century. They made lasting contributions to their newly found homes’ cultural life, both as artists and educators.
Below we look at Gordon’s life and artistic legacy 20 years after his death.
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| György Gordon, Self Portrait, 1983. Oil on Canvas. 49 x 59.5cm. Wakefield Permanent Art Collection (The Hepworth Wakefield). Full credit at end of article. |
Gordon and his daughter, Anna fled Hungary in 1956, amid the turmoil of the anti-Soviet revolution. More than 200,000 people left Hungary during or after the repressed popular uprising against Moscow’s dominance over the country.
Anna was six when they fled. The only thing she took with her was a plush toy of a monkey. Anna grew up to be a fashion designer living in southern England and still cherishes this personal object from her childhood: “It has been a faithful company for me throughout my life.”
Gordon and his first wife, Márta Edinger (1924-1997), both held degrees from the Hungarian College of Fine Art. When the revolution broke out in Budapest in late October 1956, Marta was on a work trip to Australia. She drew caricatures at the Olympic Games in Melbourne. Meanwhile Gordon held an art residency in Zsennye, a village in western Hungary, not far from the Austrian border.
On 4 November 1956, the Soviet Union invaded Hungary and crushed the uprising. Although Gordon did not join the armed fights in the streets of Budapest, he was part of the intellectual opposition to the Stalinist regime in Hungary.
Gordon feared the consequences of this dissent and decided to escape the country through the western border. Márta had relatives in the US and the family planned to reunite there.
Gordon was 32 at the time of the revolution. Anna had barely started primary school. Together, they set out to cross the border on foot across a forested area. They didn't take any baggage, which could have betrayed them. They walked during the night and hid during the day. Once they sheltered in an abandoned farmhouse. At other times they buried themselves in leaves, Anna recalled during our conversation.
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| György Gordon, Mourning, 1964. Oil on Canvas. 99 x 57.5cm. Wakefield Permanent Art Collection (The Hepworth Wakefield). Full credit at end of article. |
It took three days for them to reach the border, as they lost their way in the wilderness multiple times. “There were many trails left in the woods, which my father imagined were traps,” Anna explained. But their real ordeals started just after arriving in Austria.
After some weeks spent at a refugee camp in Salzburg, Gordon and his daughter were carried overseas with a humanitarian airlift. They arrived at Ellis Island around Christmas. However, the authorities found out that the painter was a member of the Communist party in Hungary. He and Anna were deported back to Austria, as “undesirable aliens.” It is important to note that Gordon had to be a member of the Communist party in order to have employment in Hungary.
Anna and Gyorgy were imprisoned upon their return. Anna shared a cell with four other children, also deportees, the youngest of whom was only four years old. After four days, she was placed under the care of a Hungarian couple. Her new foster parents took her to Germany, where they planned to work at a local coalmine. However, they soon changed their mind and decided to return to Hungary. They forced Anna to beg money in churches for the travel.
Whilst on the train heading home, Anna fled her foster parents. She jumped off the vehicle in Austria, in the hope of finding her father there. Her parents were already in the UK by that time. Anna ended up in another refugee camp, but the Red Cross helped reunite her with her parents. In June 1957 Anna took a plane to London, on her own, and finally joined up with her family there. However, instead of regaining the life that she left behind in Budapest, she found her parents’ marriage in a crisis. They divorced soon after.
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| György Gordon, Female Torso. Screenprint on paper. 50.5 x 58cm. Wakefield Permanent Art Collection (The Hepworth Wakefield). Full credit at end of article. |
Gordon met his second wife in the community of Hungarian émigrés in London. In 1961, he married Marianne Mózes (1936-2013), who studied piano at the Royal Academy of Music. At that time, Gordon worked as a graphic designer for multiple agencies.
For a while, they lived with a community of young artists from Hungary in Menelik Road, Kilburn. Many of them became successful in their careers in the UK or other countries.
But Anna noted there were sad stories too. Their friend, the film-maker Robert Vas, who made a number of documentaries for the BBC, took his life for not gaining British citizenship, in fear of imprisonment in his home country.
György and Marianne became British citizens in 1964, a year after the birth of their son, Adam. The same year, they moved to Wakefield, where Gordon was offered a lecturer position at the Wakefield Technical and Arts College. He taught graphic art and later painting at this institution for over twenty years. Later on, Marianne also joined the staff of the college as a teacher of music.
The Hungarian couple soon found many new friends among local arts professionals. They included fellow artists Martin Bates, Peter Murray and Steve Simpson, curator James Hamilton, and art critic W. T. Oliver.
The Gordons' home became a site of vibrant social life. “The house was full of people. People around the table talking, arguing, planning,” evoked Anna. They also frequently hosted music performances. First, the Gordons lived in a three-storey house near the city centre, at 42 Bond Street. They moved to a pair of former barn buildings in Heath Common, just outside Wakefield, in 1978. It took almost a decade for them to fully refurbish the ruined historical buildings, called the Joiners Shop & Old Smithy.
Gordon retired in 1986, after which he devoted most of his time to painting.
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| The Gordons' former home in Heath Common, near Wakefield. (Shared with consent of the current residents and Anna) |
According to Anna, who by the that time had left the family home, Heath Common was a major turning point in Gordon’s life: “He finally had the studio of his dreams and he could just be home and paint. I could see that he was completely content at that point.”
This sense of settlement was also reflected in the change of direction Gordon’s art took there. Previously, his paintings had often addressed the violence that he had seen during the Second World War and the 1956 revolution. In Heath Common, he turned to more conventional themes, such as portraits, building interiors and landscapes. However, a melancholic atmosphere remained a hallmark of his work. His human figures, including a series of self-portraits, appear to be fragile. They are enclosed in overwhelming spaces or exposed in vulnerable postures.
Hungary continued to be a subject matter for Gordon even after his period of trauma paintings. As soon as the family was naturalised in Britain, they started visiting their aging parents in Budapest. While in Hungary, Gordon made many sketches and photos of themes of potential interest.
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| György Gordon, Horses. Screenprint on paper. 41.5 x 51.5cm. Wakefield Permanent Art Collection (The Hepworth Wakefield). Full credit at end of article. |
Gordon then returned to these sketches in his studio in Heath Common. For example, he completed a series of portraits of his in-laws. These artworks explore old age, loneliness, and isolation. Gordon also painted subjects from his new home in Britain. He made portraits of James Hamilton and the onetime Sheffield-based Lindsay String Quartet. He also produced studies of his home and its environment in Heath Common.
From the mid-1960s, Gordon regularly participated in exhibitions in the Yorkshire region. His works were often displayed alongside those by Peter Murray, the founder of the Yorkshire Sculpture Park.
In 1974, the Wakefield Art Gallery celebrated Gordon’s presence in the city with a retrospective exhibition entitled “Ten Years in Wakefield." This was followed by further major solo shows, including in Budapest, London, and Leeds.
A number of Gordon's works are held in public collections, including The Hepworth Wakefield, the National Portrait Gallery, London, the National Széchényi Library, Budapest, and the University of Leeds.
By Arpad Bak, University of Leeds, funded by the AHRC through the White Rose College of the Arts & Humanities (WRoCAH)
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