Thora Ungar

Stock Room

Born in 1911 and growing up in inner Sydney, Thora Ungar studied on scholarship at East Sydney Technical School and later at the Royal Art Society Art School under Sydney Long and Datillo Rubbo. A painter of landscapes and portraits (and cats), she lived and painted in China for four years until 1941 where she created the exquisite Chinese Girl shown below, travelled and painted in the Philippines in 1966 and in Europe in 1975. From 1942 to 1946 Thora Ungar worked (using "Johnston" her married name) as a commercial artist for the "Sydney Morning Herald" and "Australian Women's Weekly" where two of her illustrations, the famous "Kakoda Trail" and "Tram Conductor", constituted the front pages in 1944 and 1943 (she put a smile on the face of the wounded soldier for homefront morale reasons). At that time there were only three commercial galleries operating in Sydney and the women's magazines in general were the main source of income for artists. She has exhibited widely including many entries in the Archibald (10 hung) and Portia Geach (18 hung) prizes, winning many awards for her work from judges that included Dobell, Dargie, Cassab, Pearce, Borlaise, and Olley and featuring first prizes at Gunnedah, Scone, Kempsey, and Tumut among many. She was commissioned to paint the portrait of George Muir Principal of Armidale Teachers' College and later Kuring-gai CAE and which now hangs at the Armidale campus. She continued working despite her declining health right up until her death in 2005 which included a solo exhibition in 2002 at James Harvey Gallery. Ungar's work is represented in institutional and private collections around the world.