Biography
György Békeffi was born on November 11, 1901 in Szeged. His father, Gyula Lázár Békeffi, was a railway employee, and his mother, Vilma Rosenberg, was a housewife. His first exhibition was in Szeged in 1925, and then he went on a study trip to Italy (Naples, Positano). The next time we hear about him is in 1927, when he asks for the city's help in a letter sent to the press so that he can get home and present his works. He was then featured in one of the group exhibitions of the Ernst Museum in 1928, and in the same year he was able to organize his (requested) collection show at the Kass Szálló in his home town. In the thirties, he illustrated several short stories by Anzelm Károly Berczeli. Then he went to Paris.
Péter's younger brother and Margit's older sister emigrated to Belgium in the spring of 1930, their mother joined them in November and György in September 1931 in Brussels. Very little is known about this period of his work: according to an article, his first exhibition in Brussels in 1932 was a great success; Between 1932 and 1934, he studied sales and advertising at the Institute for Advanced Advertising Studies, and at the same time completed a wood and marble imitation course. At the end of the decade, the Belgian critic Paul Leclerq de Sainte Haie wrote an article about Békeffi, "whose grandiose and strange compositions are surprising in a way that cannot be associated with any contemporary school". The text refers to a fresco with a biblical theme, which was made for the monastery in Tessenderlo, but the monastery burned down in 1942. In April 1944, György was deported together with his brother Péter to Bergen-Belsen, where they both lost their lives.