Georges Mora
| Georges Mora | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Gunter Morawski June 26, 1913 Leipzig |
| Died | June 7, 1992 (aged 78) Melbourne |
| Other names | Georges Morand |
| Occupation | Art Dealer |
| Years active | 1954-1992 |
| Known for | Mentorship of Australian artists, establishment of Tolarno Galleries |
| Spouse(s) | Mirka Mora (m.1947, div.1979), Caroline Williams (m.1985) |
| Children | Philippe (b.1949), William (b.1953), Tiriel (b.1958), Sam (b.1985) |
Georges Mora (1913–1992) was a German-born Australian entrepreneur, art dealer, patron, connoisseur and restaurateur.
Mora was born Gunter Morawski on June 26 1913 in Leipzig, Germany, of Jewish Polish heritage. As a young medical student Mora became a member of a communist cell and fled Germany to Paris in 1930. When the Spanish Civil War broke out, Georges left Paris to join the cause. After a plane crash, he was a prisoner of war for a short time. He was active in the French Resistance in World War II, using the alias Georges Morand. After the War, Georges worked as a patent dealer and became the director of a Jewish rehabilitation home for children run by Œuvre de secours aux enfants (OSE) in Paris. Later In 1947 he married Parisian artist and fellow Jewish refugee Mirka Zelik, becoming a French citizen.
In 1949, after the birth of Georges' and Mirka's first son Philippe Mora (a filmmaker) they joined his family in New York, then in July 1951 moved on to McKinnon, Melbourne where he adopted the name Georges Mora. With characteristic adaptability he took up management of a matzo factory. Seeking more romantic quarters Georges and Mirka moved into Grosvenor Chambers (Ola Cohn's former studio) at 9 Collins Street Melbourne (the so called 'Paris End'). Recognising that their hospitality and cuisine were marketable, the Moras opened a coffee lounge. In 1954, 'Mirka Café' was the first in Melbourne where patrons could eat at tables on the pavement in the Parisian style and the café became the watering-hole of Melbourne's avant-garde. Patrons ate from Expressionist crockery by Arthur Boyd and John Perceval, were seated on surrealist furniture, and surrounded by murals and sculptures by Clifford Last, Ian Sime and Julius Kane. In 1956, Georges Mora was elected President of the Contemporary Art Society. Artists donated paintings towards an inaugural fundraising exhibition in 1957. In 1958 he established Café Balzac in East Melbourne gaining a reputation as a restaurateur serving classic French cuisine to an eager clientele, which included a gathering of the most significant contemporary Australian artists, to whom he proffered the walls of his establishment. Georges and Mirka relocated their business, opening in 1965 the Tolarno Restaurant and Galleries in Melbourne's bohemian St Kilda. The rear of the building became a venue for exhibitions of avant-garde art and was soon surrounded by other galleries.
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