Gyula Sajo was born in Hungary in 1918 and studied art and architecture in Budapest. He lectured at the Technical University in Budapest and at the Budapest Academy of Applied Art. In 1955 in the same city he had a one-man show. In 1958 his work was shown at Foyles Art Gallery, London. Only two days after arriving in England, following the Hungarian uprising of 1956, he was busy painting. He continued working until his death in 1989. A retrospective exhibition was held at the Worthing Museum and Art Gallery in the summer of 2004, who own several of his watercolours and prints. In 1989 he was awarded posthumously the Albert Eistein International Academy Foundation (founded 1965) Bronze Medal for Peace. His wife, Erzsebet, who was also an artist, she had an exhibition of mosaics at the University of Surrey in November 1988 after which she donated one depicting flamingos.