George Fertig

Who was George Fertig?

George Fertig was a Canadian artist. He was born in Carmangay, Alberta and died in Burnaby, British Columbia. He began with photography in his early 20's and started oil painting at the age of 24. In 1941 he moved to Vancouver from Trail. He exhibited in the B.C. Artists Annual Exhibition in the 1940s and early 50's. But with the rise of abstractionism and the confines of the sociopolitical climate of the Vancouver Art Gallery and the Vancouver School of Art, his work was rarely seen outside of the Gallery of B.C. Arts in the 60's and 70's. The Burnaby Art Gallery held a retrospective of his work in 2010 and his daughter Mona Fertig wrote and published The Life and Art of George Fertig, the 3rd book in the Unheralded Artists of BC series-Mother Tongue Publishing, for the exhibition.

He was an artists’ artist. His work was esteemed by those who delight in revelation, through art, of inner realities. He was profoundly influenced by world art: Gaugin, Chardin, and the writings of Carl Jung. George Fertig, along with; David Marshall, Peter Paul Ochs, Jock Hearn, LeRoy Jensen, Frank Molnar, Jack Ackroyd... belong to a group of neglected artists that are part of the unacknowledged and disappearing Vancouver art history of the 40's, 50's & 60's. George Fertig was married to Evelyn Fertig. They have two daughters.