Ben Uri Research Unit

Born: 1929 Gyula, Hungary

Died: 2013 Darlington, England

Year of Migration to the UK: 1956

Other name/s: Vásárhelyi Gyula László, Julian Vasarhelyi, G. Vasarhelyi , G. L. Vasarhelyi, J. Vasarhelyi

Biography

Graphic artist and stamp designer Gyula Vasarhelyi was born in Gyula in south-east Hungary on 14 March 1929. He grew up in various locations, including Transylvania, due to his father's work, before the family eventually settled in Budapest after the Second World War. In the capital Vasarhelyi attended the Art Lyceum, a specialised high school for gifted children, which paved the way for his admission to the Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts.

During the 1956 uprising, a large number of students from the Academy of Fine Arts, including Vasarhelyi, took part in protests, either individually or collectively, under the university’s influence. Vasarhelyi became actively involved in organising demonstrations, which led to his being declared a traitor and an enemy of the state. He escaped Hungary a month after the uprising, travelling to Szombathely, near the Austrian border, before crossing into Austria by foot across the River Rába. Seeking refuge in England, he continued his studies at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, completing his training in 18 months. In 1958, he received a scholarship from the Paderewsky Foundation of New York, which allowed him to study 'oriental' art for a year in Baroda, India, followed by two years in Indonesia. During this period, he focused on painting portraits and scenes of local life, holding several exhibitions that earned him significant recognition. In 1963, Vasarhelyi moved to Cuzco, Peru, where he taught at the Academy of Fine Arts for two and a half years. His time in South America was marked by successful exhibitions and positive reviews in the local press.

Upon his return to England in 1965, Vasarhelyi embarked on a career as a freelance artist, specialising almost exclusively in stamp design. Over his career he designed more than 7,000 postal stamps and 7,000 envelopes for first-day covers dispatched across 163 countries. Among his notable works was a commission to create portraits of 40 former monarchs and a series for the World Health Organisation (WHO) anniversary. In the early 1990s, his designs were even reviewed in a Royal Family documentary, where the Queen Mother personally approved his work, despite some difficulty pronouncing his name. He once petitioned the British Minister for Communication and Transport in 1959, requesting that stamps feature designs beyond the traditional profile of the Monarch, particularly for special occasions. Although he was told that British stamps were not meant to generate profit, he noted that, by the 1980s, financial pressures led to an increased focus on stamp variety. Due to his last name’s position in the alphabet, he humorously remarked that it took decades before he was formally approached by the Post Office to design stamps (Kossuth Radio interview, 2009).

Vasarhelyi participated in at least one exhibition in the UK early in his career, in 1957, at Dirleton House Gallery, 82 Canongate, in Edinburgh. This featured the works of five Hungarian artists who had come to the UK, following the Hungarian Revolution the previous year. The other exhibitors were Endre Boszin, Gusztav Sarkadi, Lajos Kaposy, and Agnes Szucs. An art critic from The Scotsman newspaper noted that Vasarhelyi’s watercolours had a ‘curious and rather fascinating Victorian air’, adding that his works, such as Picnic, displayed extreme delicacy. The critic also pondered on which direction ‘such a talent’ would take in the future (The Scotsman, 1957). In 1982 his work was included in the exhibition Tisztelet a szülőföldnek (Homage to the Homeland) at the Hall of Art, Budapest. In 2008, he published a memoir titled Szemelvények életutam változatos történeteiből (Selections from the Varied Stories of My Life Journey), reflecting on his experiences as both an artist and a political refugee. Gyula Vasarhelyi died in Darlington, County Durham, England, in 2013. His work is not currently represented in UK public collections.

Related books

Adriana Kiss-Davie, The Exile Experience: Hungarian and Czech Cold War Refugee Artists in Britain, PhD thesis, Aberystwyth University, 27 May 2011
Gyula Vasarhelyi, Vitéz Kézdi-Vásárhelyi Gyula László Nemzetközileg Jegyzett Bélyegtervező Művész Életrajzi Írása (England: Gyula László Vásárhelyi, 2008)
‘Cayman Islands’, Halifax Evening Courier, 30 December 1967, p. 6
‘Fiji’, Halifax Evening Courier, 28 October 1967, p. 6
‘Bermuda’, Halifax Evening Courier, 8 July 1967, p. 6
‘Five Hungarian Painters’, The Scotsman, 3 December 1957, p. 4

Related organisations

Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts (student)
Royal Academy of Arts (student)

Selected exhibitions

Tisztelet a szülőföldnek (Homage to the homeland), Hall of Art, Budapest, Hungary (1982)
Five Hungarian Painters, Dirleton House Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland (1957)

Ben Uri archive

Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Gyula Vasarhelyi]