Victor Smorgon AO (1913-2009), industrialist and philanthropist, is the former chairman of Smorgon Consolidated Industries. Smorgon emigrated to Australia from the Ukraine in 1927, and ran a kosher butchery with his two brothers in Lygon St, Carlton. Over the ensuing decades they built a family business empire encompassing steel, meat, paper, plastics, forestry and commercial property. The Smorgons have previously been listed as Australia's richest family. Their enormous contributions to a wide range of medical and arts institutions in Australia include the Smorgon outpatients' wing at the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital; the Loti and Victor Smorgon Gift of Contemporary Australian Art, Sydney; and the Loti and Victor Smorgon Gallery of the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2001
© Estate of Joe Greenberg
Joe Greenberg (37 portraits)
On one level The Companion talks about the most famous and frontline Australians, but on another it tells us about ourselves: who we read, who we watch, who we listen to, who we cheer for, who we aspire to be, and who we'll never forget. The Companion is available to buy online and in the Portrait Gallery Store.
A collection of thirty-seven caricatures by the artist Joe Greenberg capture the heroes and villians of Australian business in the 1980s.
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