George Gittoes on the Angel of Peace
The 2015 Sydney Peace Prize Laureate, artist and filmmaker George Gittoes, has donated his new painting, Angel of Peace, to the Sydney Peace Foundation to coincide with the announcement of Jennifer Robinson as the 2026 Laureate.
Jennifer is the epitome of an angel of peace. I’m enormously proud of her.
“She’s bringing about social change through her own brilliance and by legal means,” he says.
George won the Sydney Peace Prize in 2015 for his activism and courage in chronicling conflicts and exposing injustices through his art. His work has taken him across the world to countless conflict settings, where he has witnessed and documented the horrors of war and violence. Despite all he has seen, he believes that art can save humanity.
“I like to create beauty in the face of everything. So that’s what your angel is all about. It’s about not giving in […] and not losing faith in the ability for humanity to evolve,” he says.
George says his painting was inspired by Botticelli’s Annunciation, and represents a love for humanity which unites us and transcends our differences.
“While Botticelli’s angel is announcing a religious event, mine is not announcing that, it’s announcing what we all hope for: the coming of peace,” he says. “And that’s what the Sydney Peace Prize is all about.”
George and Jennifer are good friends, and he describes her as “absolutely brilliant.” Despite contributing to the pursuit of peace with justice in different ways, George says they have a lot in common.
“If you were sitting down when Jen comes around for a cup of tea, you’d find that we’ve got many more things in common than you would think.”
“She understands the filmmaking process and she writes, so there’s a lot of creative things that I do that are similar to her. The only thing she doesn’t do is paint and draw.”
George’s involvement with the Sydney Peace Foundation has continued throughout the decade following his Peace Prize. Every year he donates paintings for the Foundation’s annual fundraising auction.
“I’m a huge supporter of the Peace Foundation, even if I wasn’t a recipient,” George says. “The Sydney Peace Foundation is a force for good and an inspiration to join the fight.”
In 2011, he and his wife Hellen Rose, also an artist, founded the Yellow House, an art school and sanctuary in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. The Yellow House remains their biggest project, which George describes as “flourishing”.
Their 2025 documentary film Yellow House Afghanistan follows George and Hellen’s return to Jalalabad to see the transformative effects it has had on the lives of the young people involved.
“The Yellow House is succeeding in the fight to show how art and communication can win in a place where 20 years of war failed,” he says. “I think our Yellow House is something that brings hope- it’s something that shows you can make a difference.”
“There has always been a battle between the angels of good and the angels of evil. We must remain in the fight, every one of us, and not give in.”
George’s latest films, Yellow House Afghanistan and Humanity in Danger, are available on SBS Demand.
Click here to learn about George’s Sydney Peace Prize or see his work on his website.
By Molly Teskey