Zágorec-Csuka Judit: Gábor Zoltán festőművész portréja (Lendva, 2002)
Részletek Gábor Zoltán prózai műveiből
the fundamental message in his creativity, and he repines over not belonging in a world like this; he feels isolated and forgotten. For those reasons, he can relate to the mysticism of De Chirico, moved by empty, abandoned spaces shining in some imaginary moonlight, dazzling, sparse light. He finds the melancholy in these paintings beautiful and esthetically profound. Gabor's painting are filled with motifs and objective forms; he doesn't accept abstract painting, asserting that it is difficult to determine the degree of its quality and "artistry". Writing on that subject in "Homing Pigeon," he says: "I am of the opinion that in abstract forms it is easier to hid ignorance and lack of dexterity than when representing visual, objective reality. The absolute dictatorship of abstract 'art' appears to me inappropriate to ourtimes. Also, so-called naive 'artists' do not merely show the awkwardness of absent skills and dilettantism; most likely they don't even understand the negativity that accompanies it. Its advocates emphasize the significance of 'preserving tradition.' It would be wiser to let that subject flow onto paper with the written word and not conserve it with such ostentatious paintings. In an esthetically cultured person those paintings induce antipathy." Gabor's own formal expression lies somewhere between cubism and constructivism, or a mixture of both. Everything he wants to tell in his paintings he constructs in geometric planes. "That kind of painting does not lie; with its two-dimensionality it does not awaken false feelings of depth or three dimensions." His frescoes are particularly indicative of that formal expression, whereas, in his smaller oil paintings, there always exists the so-called "unreal" suggestion of perspective, the result of his academic inheritance and adaptation to the wishes of a broader public. We often come across an inhuman world in his pictures, representing mankind's ethical and spiritual collapse, his devaluation, upon which Gábor comments as follows: "I do not merely argue man's gradual moral and spiritual collapse, for man is completely degraded, and that is a fact. I could say, ironically, that I have removed man from my paintings because I am not an animalistic painter. The pictures, „Portrait of a Psychopath" and „Hypocrites," most clearly express my opinion and view of life, and many years of having worked in the psychiatric clinic in Vrapče has only confirmed them." The double-dealing man, greedy and selfish, are characteristics that Gábor hates ("Trophy"). His works are filled with many-layered symbolism. "Riders of the Apocalypse" is a metaphor of devastating horrors that occur throughout the world, not just in the Balkans. Among the artist's favorite themes is the still life, for he is not imbued with any kind of concept or ideal, and therefore radiates the pure visual beauty of an object. "Sometimes I would so much like to repose in some sort of still life." Gábor is drawn to places, nationalities, people, but, at the same time, he scorns them all when they revert to extremes — nationalism, self-interest, duplicity, vehemence, presumption, arrogance, greed, lying, superiority toward others... His philosophy is: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you, do not lie, and do not offend others. Those are conditions for 161
