George Finey

George Edmond Finey (16 March 1895 – 8 June 1987) was an Australian illustrator, cartoonist and caricaturist. Born in New Zealand, he was most active as a black-and-white artist in Sydney from 1920 to the mid-1940s, during which time he worked for Smith's Weekly, the Labor Daily, the Daily Telegraph and other newspapers and publications. The left-wing pacifist and humanist viewpoint in his political cartoons were the subject of criticism and censure from both the left and right during his career, but Finey remained uncompromising in his political views.

During his period with Smith's Weekly in the 1920s Finey developed outstanding skills as a caricaturist, a category of his art practice for which he was especially admired in his lifetime. The journal Art in Australia dedicated an entire issue to his caricatures in June 1931. Finey moved to the Blue Mountains in 1942. In his later artistic career Finey was known for his expressionistic and mixed media paintings and sculpture.

Biography

Early years

George Edmond Finey was born on 16 March 1895 in the Auckland suburb of Parnell, New Zealand, one of eleven children of English-born mariner, Solomon ('Harry') Finey, and his wife Rose Emily (née Newton).

By the time he was aged fourteen Finey began selling his drawings to local Auckland newspapers. Finey was wounded in 1917 and suffered burns from exposure to mustard gas. Finey was repatriated to New Zealand in August 1919, departing from England aboard the Tainui and arriving at Wellington on 21 September 1919. His cartoons were included in the June 1920 issue of Aussie: The Cheerful Monthly. In July 1920 Finey's pencil and charcoal sketches, described as "vigorous" and "full of movement", were exhibited at the Sydney Art Society's students' show. By early in 1921 the art editor at Smith's Weekly, Alec Sass, agreed for him to became a staff artist, initially on a salary of nine pounds per week. In about February 1921 an agreement was signed under which Finey was employed "in the capacity of artist and cartoonist" on the staff of Smith's Weekly for five years from 1 March 1921 "and thereafter until the expiration of the agreement". Finey's early contributions to the newspaper were mainly joke cartoons.

After a mock ceremony performed by fellow-artist Percy Lindsay, George Finey and Nellie ('Nat') Phoebe Murray were married on 25 March 1922 at St. Clement's Anglican church in Mosman. The couple had seven children.

In September 1922 the first of a pair of Finey's characteristic caricatures began to be published in Smith's Weekly, in the 'Gossip from Here, There, and Everywhere' section of the newspaper. The first to be published, in the 25 September 1922 issue, were caricatures of William Brooks, a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council, and James Dooley, premier of New South Wales from October to December 1921.

In the words of Lionel Lindsay, under Finey's hand "the human countenance becomes elastic", adding: "Without truce or mercy he shapes it anew, yet preserves a curious memory of the original". George Blaikie, a Smith's Weekly journalist, described Finey as "a man of fearless spirit [who] would not be sway by hope of heaven or fear of hell from portraying people as he personally interpreted them". Finey's caricature of Daniel Mannix, the Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne and a controversial figure at the time, was published in March 1922, after deliberation by the Smith's Weekly newspaper owners. Blaikie wrote that Finey's "critical" caricature emphasised Mannix's "severe... intolerant and unhappy characteristics".

'From Hughes to Bruce, or Making the Best of a Bad Job', transformation caricatures by George Finey, published in Smith's Weekly, 17 February 1923.

In late 1922 Finey began a series of transformation caricatures, in comic strip format, showing the process to turning a face into a caricature, the remoulding of one face to another, or the reshaping of an object into a face. The first of these, 'A Caricaturist at Work', was published on 25 November 1922.

Finey was one of twenty-five foundation members of the Black and White Artists' Society, formed in July 1924, and was elected as a committee member. He remained prominent in its activities until shortly before he died. Blaikie remembered him as an unkempt sandal-wearing bohemian, fearlessly honest in his work, and notoriously generous.

In May 1925 Finey's employment contract was updated, whereby he was employed as an artist and cartoonist on the staff of Smith's Weekly and The Daily Guardian for the following five years.

A hearing was commenced in the Equity Court in September 1926 before Justice Long Innes. However Finey did "claim a pyrrhic victory", having established that ownership of the artwork rested with the artist if the value of the drawing was of great value than the materials used in producing it. Having run out of funds on the court case and with a young family at home, Finey was permitted to return to work at Smith's Weekly.

From July 1928 Finey's left-leaning political views began to be featured in Smith's Weekly, in regular features with a variety of titles such as 'Finey's Potted Comment on the Week' and 'The World Through Finey's Eye'. Finey's featured political cartoons continued through the early months of the Great Depression until about April 1930. Finey, who described his left-wing sympathies as "truthfulness", became known around the offices of Smith's Weekly as 'the Bolshie'. From mid-September 1930 Finey's uncompromising political cartoons were published on page one of many issues of The Labor Daily newspaper. He contributed a full-page poster, featuring a caricature of Nationist Party leader Thomas Bavin, published on the back page of The Labor Daily for its 20 October 1930 issue, five days before the New South Wales state election which was won by the Labor party with Jack Lang becoming premier of the state. Finey's cartoons continued to be published by the Labor Daily until 10 January 1931, reportedly being dropped from the newspaper because of the cartoonist's antagonism towards Jack Lang. One account of the reason for his early dismissal was that Finey wrote to Jack Lang when the "main plank of the Labor Party's policy – the socialisation of industry – was going to be introduced". Lang's reply, via his Secretary, was: "On account of the reorganisation of staff your services are no longer required". By late 1931 Finey's cartoons and caricatures were once again being published in the Labor Daily. Caricatures of sportsmen by Finey were published in the newspaper in November and December 1931.

Finey was the first president of the Workers' Art Club, established in August 1932, where he conducted art classes. The club was initially located in an annex of the Sydney School of Arts, but soon afterwards moved to larger premises at 36 Pitt Street. In a review of Finey's exhibition the writer for Workers' Weekly, official newspaper of the Communist Party of Australia, condemned his cartoons as "defeatist propaganda". Finey's illustration 'Workers lined up for the dole' was described as depicting the workers "as miserable, spiritless derelicts, without a ray of hope". In contrast, the writer declared that "a proletarian artist" should show "the determination of the workers to fight back", adding: "Every stroke of his brush should be defiant, aimed to stir the masses to revolt... for better conditions". Finey's response was that graphic art should reflect the realism of the situation. Disagreements with the Communist Party and the management committee of the Workers' Art Club led to his resignation from the latter organisation.

In April 1933 Finey began teaching art classes at the People's Art Club, located above a nightclub at 147A King Street. The club later staged several plays, but had a short life. Throughout 1935 to about October Finey's caricatures were featured in Truth. In June 1940 the Daily News was acquired by Consolidated Press Ltd. and incorporated in the Daily Telegraph in July, with many of the Daily News staff joining the Daily Telegraph, including the cartoonist Will Mahony. In December 1940 a volume of cartoons by three artists employed by the Daily Telegraph – Finey, Will Mahony and W. E. Pidgeon ('Wep') – was published. The 48-page collection titled War Cartoons were made of cartoons relating to the war in Europe.

In about 1942 Finey and his family left their home at Brookvale, in northern Sydney, to live at Springwood in the Blue Mountains. Penton then requested that George Finey produce a cartoon critical of striking coal miners. Finey refused, telling the editor he had "moral objections" to doing so, and he too was sacked (or resigned) from the newspaper.

Finey contributed to the school magazine of the Springwood Public School, Bran Pie, published in December 1946. His contribution consisted of caricatures of the school captains, Betty Tuckey and Ian Russell. Illustrations by Finey appeared in the School Magazine (in the issues of June, August and September 1947), published by the New South Wales Department of Education.

By the 1940s he was constructing 'junk sculptures' and collages in addition to his more accessible caricatures and black and white illustrations. In 1970 an art critic wrote about Finey constantly creating "out of waste, scrap and natural materials", using "rags, twine, shells, clay and stumps taken from the bush". The writer added: "He has made a whole series out of rolled-up, varnished newspapers, and he is adding to his History of Music with portraits of composers done in plastic foam, etched out with fine sandpaper".

In 1951 an exhibition of Finey's paintings was held in New York, a collection that included flower paintings and "imaginative compositions". An article about the upcoming exhibition commented: "Fellow artists and critics acknowledge Finey's skill, but differ on whether his work will endure as art". From Finey's perspective, "certain that his novel approach is valid, [he] throws his exuberant and imaginative personality into his creative work, allowing only a minimum of time for bread-and-butter jobs".

In September 1952 Finey exhibited a collection of his artworks in Tokyo, organised by the Japan-Australia-New Zealand Society, the first Australian artist to stage a one-man show in Japan.

In 1962 art-works by Finey were exhibited at the Qantas House gallery in London. The collection, made up of paintings, sculptures, ceramics, and enamel paintings, was titled "A History of Music – according to George Finey".

In 1978 a retrospective exhibition of Finey's art on musical themes opened at the Sydney Opera House. Finey was described as "the last of the great bohemians" and the majority of the works were portraits or relief sculptures, using a wide variety of materials. The exhibition included a free-standing sculpture titled 'Corroboree' which incorporated broken beer bottles with Aboriginal totems.