Géza Szóbel was born into a Jewish family in 1905 in Komárno, Austria-Hungary (now Slovakia) and attended the Fine Arts Academy in Prague, before moving to Paris in 1927 to study under Fernand Léger; participating in avantgarde circles he absorbed various aspects of French modernism, while he was further exposed to European expressionism during sojourns in Prague and Berlin. With the outbreak of war in 1939, he joined the Czechoslovak Army in France, reaching England by 1941, where he resumed his artistic career with the support of English art critic, Hebert Read (particularly documenting wartime experiences) before his return to France, where he died in 1963.
Jewish painter and printmaker, Géza Szóbel was born in 1905 in Komárno, Austria-Hungary (now Slovakia). He attended the Fine Arts Academy of Prague before moving to Paris in 1927, where he studied under renowned modernist, Fernand Léger. Mixing with avant-garde artists, including Marc Chagall, Le Corbusier, Louis Aragon, and Sonia and Robert Delaunay, Szóbel's colourful, semi-abstract oeuvre fused diverse aspects of French modernism, such as fauvism, orphism, surrealism, and cubism, while a brief stay in Berlin introduced him to German Expressionism, and inspired him to revisit Prague.
With the outbreak of the Second World War, he joined the Czechoslovak forces in France, reaching England by 1941, his wartime experiences profoundly impacting his creativity. At this time he designed a medal (produced in Birmingham in 1941) commemorating soldiers of the 2nd Czechoslovak Infantry Battalion who perished in the Battle of France in 1940. Now in the collection of the Imperial War Museum, London, the explanatory text notes: 'Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke recalls in his diary being presented with a duplicate specimen on the 19 September 1941 during his visit to Czechoslovak forces ('a most efficient though somewhat dirty force') who were then based near Leamington, in Warwickshire. He recorded [...] that it depicted 'Czechosolvakia being crucified on a swastika' (Imperial War Museum). Synthesising his own experiences and the stories of his fellow soldiers, who had reached France from Nazi-occupied countries, Szóbel created a powerful documentary body of works on paper; discovered by renowned English art critic, Herbert Read, this series of drawings, grouped under the title 'Civilisation' was exhibited in 1942 at the Czechoslovak Institute in London, then at the Victoria & Albert Museum, alongside Goya's Los Desastres de la Guerra and Jacques Callot's Les Misères et Malheurs de la Guerre, suggesting that the horrors of war were part of a continuum. An accompanying publication entitled 'Civilisation' was produced by Penguin Books in October 1942, under a dramatic black cover and illustrated with Szóbel's images of concentration camps. Read also suggested that Szóbel approach E.M. O'R. Dickey of the War Artists' Advisory Committee who, in turn, recommended him to the Czechoslovak War Office to make records of war activities. In November 1942 the Committee purchased four of his drawings for 20 guineas, now also in the Imperial War Museum collection. In the same year Szóbel contributed a print to a portfolio of poems, etchings and engravings, edited by the American heiress, Nancy Cunard and British surrealist, John Banting; entitled 'Salvo for Russia', 100 copies were published in aid of the Comforts Fund for Women and Children of Soviet Russia. The ten contributing artists - of six different nationalities - included young British notables, Julian Trevelyan and John Piper, alongside recent émigrés, Szóbel, Oskar Kokoschka and Dolf Rieser. Maggs Bros, one of London's leading antiquarian booksellers, has described the portfolio as one of the 'most important British surrealist publications'. In December 1942, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in New York reported from London that: 'An exhibit entitled “Under the Star of David”, consisting of a series of drawings and paintings concerning the sufferings of the Jews under the Nazis – will be opened here next month by the Foreign Ministry of the Czechoslovakian Government-in-Exile [...] the work of a Czech-Jewish soldier, Geza Sobel'; this was Szóbel's one-person exhibition at the Fine Art Society, the accompanying catalogue including a Foreword by Czechoslovak Foreign Minister, Jan Masyryk, and an Introduction by Herbert Read. From 1945–47 Szóbel's paintings had a brief presence in Dublin; he had a solo exhibition at Victor Waddington Galleries in 1945, while in 1945 and 1947, his work featured in the recently founded (1943) annual initiative, the Irish Exhibition of Living Art (IELA), which focussed on contemporary, progressive work, not exclusively by Irish artists. In 1948 and 1950 Szóbel also showed with prestigious London gallery, Gimpel Fils, itself founded by émigrés and which supported many recent artist arrivals, including former Polish solider, Jankel Adler.
Géza Szóbel subsequently returned to France, where he continued to exhibit with commercial galleries and in annual salons. He died in Boulogne-Billancourt, a suburb of Paris, in 1963. The contents of his studio were sold by Hôtel Drouot in Paris in 1971 and 1976. His work is represented in public collections in the UK, including the British Museum and Imperial War Museum, London.
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Publications related to [Géza Szóbel] in the Ben Uri Library