Georges Mora
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Georges Mora (1913 - 1992), Australian immigrant entrepreneur, art dealer, patron, connoisseur, restaurateur, was born Gunter Morawski in Leipzig, Saxony in Germany in 1913.
Being of Jewish/Polish heritage, and a member of a communist cell, he fled Germany to Paris in 1930 where he adopted his new name. When the Spanish Civil War broke out, Georges left Paris to join the cause, and after a plane crash, was for a short time a prisoner of war. He was active in the French Resistance in World War II, using the alias Georges Morand. After the War, Georges became the director of a Jewish Rehabilitation home for children run by OSE (Oeuvre de Secours aux Enfants), in Paris.
Later In 1947 he married the artist and fellow Jewish refugee Mirka Zelik(Mirka Mora). In 1949, after the birth of their first son Philippe Mora ( an independent filmmaker) they joined his family in New York, then very shortly moved on to Melbourne, Australia. With characteristic adaptability he took up management of a matzos factory. Mora 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), then he established at Balzac Restaurant in East Melbourne a high standing as a restaurateur serving classic French cuisine to an eager clientele. Sons William Mora, born in 1953, and Tiriel Mora(1958), are respectively an art dealer and an actor. Georges and Mirka opened the Tolarno Restaurant and Galleries in Melbourne's bohemian St Kilda. This became a venue for exhibitions of avant garde art and was soon surrounded by other galleries. The Moras' house at bayside Aspendale was regularly visited by artists Charles Blackman, Albert Tucker, John Perceval, Sidney Nolan,John Olsen, Colin Lanceley, Gareth Sansom, Mike Brown, Martin Sharp, Asher Bilu and Ivan Durrant. They were joined by prominent journalists and writers Barrett Reid, Brian McArdle and Philip Jones, who found company amongst the likes of French mime Marcel Marceau, Barry Humphries, photographers such as Robert Whitaker and Mark Strizic, and filmmaker Nigel Buesst. Built by architect Peter Burns, the house opened onto a common courtyard shared by the Moras' close friends Sunday and John Reed art patrons and founders of the Heide Circle.
In 1969, to avoid bankruptcy, Mora sold the Tolarno hotel and leased out the restaurant and gallery. In the early 70s he separated from Mirka. Ten years later, Georges sold the restaurant and relocated the Tolarno Galleries to South Yarra. In 1985 Georges married artist, Caroline Williams when their son, Sam, was born. As a dealer for Daniel Wildenstein, Georges travelled to the USA and Europe promoting the international reputation of Australian art, and selling into National, State, regional and corporate collections. Georges was made a Chevalier des Arts et Lettres by the French Government in 1989 and he was a strong supporter of the move toward multiculturalism in his adopted country.
In 1992, the age of 78 and still energetically running the Tolarno Gallery he died of a brain tumour. His son William Mora continues the family tradition as the current director of Tolarno in new premesis at 104 Exhibition Street Melbourne. In George's memory The Georges Mora Foundation was established in May 2006. It is a not-for-profit cultural foundation dedicated to the promotion of contemporary art and artists in Melbourne and Australia.
