Zágorec-Csuka Judit: Gábor Zoltán festőművész portréja (Lendva, 2002)

Részletek Gábor Zoltán prózai műveiből

ed him in the following decade. Also, the thirty-five years of having his artistic creativity ignored is the punishment that, as he says, the "mentally ill government invested in his 'mistake'." Back in Zagreb, he was again confronted with cruel reality and had to find a way to support his family quickly. With the help of a friend, Ervin Sinko, he was employed as book designeratthe publishing firm, "Naprijed". Buried in orders, Gáborwas often obliged to work on weekends. Later he taught at the II. Classical College, and after one year, in a grammar school. Between 1959 and 1962 he did scenography for the State Puppet Theater, from 1962 until his retirement in 1988, he was art therapist at the Psychiatric Clinic in Vrapče. He was the first therapist in Yugoslavia to practice methods of re-socialization with drawings as an expressional tool in helping to heal patients. Later that method was employed throughout the entire country.

From 1962 until 1966 Gáborserved two mandates as secretary of Croatia's Association of Fine Artists. That function enabled him to meet countless local, but more importantly, foreign artists, and he organized innumerable exhibitions. His main sources of pride are having presented Croatian artists to Hungary in Székesfehérvár and organizing an exhibition of Hungarian artists in Zagreb. He helped various colleagues and obtained studios for many of them, but never thought to take advantage of anything for himself, and for 50 years, he has been painting in his kitchen.

Zoltán Gábor is a founding member of the Association for Science and Art of Croatian Hungarians (HMTMT), and a member of the Zagreb Hungarian Cultural Circle, Ady Endre. We find him on the pages of the Lexicon of Hungarian Fine Artists and the Croatian Bibliographical Lexicon. He is well known in Slovenian, Croatian and Hungarian cultural spheres. His friends are, as he himself states, mostly from art circles, among those especially meaningful to him are artists, writers and poets living in Prekmurje.

In 1960 Gábor's mother became ill and that urged him to return more often to his birthplace. When she died, he sold her belongings; without her beloved presence, they lost all meaning. However, his connections with Lendava were not totally severed. He keeps old and new ties with friends, mainly, sculptor Ferenc Király, and, until they passed away, with the poet, Sándor Szunyogh and the graphics artist, Štefan Galič. In 1973 Ferenc Király, then director of the Gallery- Museum Lendava, organized the first International Fine Arts Colony. Gábor's participation made it possible for him to become acquainted with contemporary fine artists from the Zala and Vas counties of Hungary.

One of Gábor's significant productions is a series of frescoes, "The Four Seasons." It depicts important historical, cultural and economical moments characteristic of Lendava and its surroundings. The title alludes to the rural region, dependent upon the rhythm of the seasons, but the theme itself required the classical form of the Golden Rule. The series is composed of nine paintings: Romans, Huns - Winter; Slavs - Spring; Hungarians, 1572, Turks, 1848, Darkness - Summer; Today - Autumn. With these fres159