Zágorec-Csuka Judit: Gábor Zoltán festőművész portréja (Lendva, 2002)
Részletek Gábor Zoltán prózai műveiből
Arts Academy. Among his professors were Krsto Hegedušić, ĐuroTiljak and Vid Mihičić. The latter instilled in him a love for Gothic architecture that he was able to view closely while traveling in France. He graduated in 1951 and a few years later received his master's degree for a project entitled, "Composition." A double identity has accompanied Gábor most of his life. Hungarian born, he spent his youth in the then Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. He was in Budapest during his high school period — a time when, under normal circumstances, personal development is most strongly determined. His academic studies, professional and private life took place in Croatia, where, in 1946 he married Vera Horvat, who was also born in Prekmurje. That double identity — experiencing, understanding and co-promotion of both of those cultures — reflects greatly upon the content of his artistic creativity. In 1951 he began to teach drawing and art history in the Zagreb Women's Teacher's College, experiencing that period as unproductive, or more properly, the task of Sisyphus. In 1953 he traveled to France to relatives of his wife. Evaux les Bains is a health resort. From there he visited places in southern France and was particularly fascinated and enthralled by the provincial Romanesque architecture adorned with early Christian motifs. After six months he longed for the city, Paris, where, for two paintings, Professor Marie-Joseph Aucouturie gave him two months' lodgings. Walks acquainted him with the town, visiting galleries, sitting in cafes; he was fascinated by the Impressionists, even more so by the Post-Impressionists—Gaugin, Van Gogh. Always having admired Paleolithic culture, he went to see prehistoric Lascaux, Combarelles and Font de Gaume. He journeyed in a considerable part of southern France: Labri du Cap-Blanc, Rouen, Lourdes, Mantes, Venon, Orcival, Necairet... Back home, he described his French sojourn in published essays: "Homing Pigeon" and "My Narrative." Another important mental connection with France is Gabor's fascination and admiration for the Middle Age poet, Francis Villon, whose poems and biography he intensively studies, analyzes, comments on and often recites. He traveled through areas where Villon probably traveled, which, in turn, sharpened his sensibility for French literature and poetry. He refers to that experiential and emotionally impulsive time as one of the happiest of his life. Upon returning home in 1954, Gábor found Zagreb's ambient narrow and primitive. Božena, his daughter, was born during that time, and the thought that also his child would have to live in such a gray and stressful milieu gnawed at him. Confrontation with harsh reality and the events of 1956 in Hungary stirred him to take a courageous step — emigration to Vienna. In his early difficulties, he received considerable help from Evangelical minister of Hungarian birth, István Szépfalusi. His plans to settle his family in Norway were interrupted by a telegram from his mother imploring him to come home because his wife was ill. Following the advice of Szépfalusi, he reported immediately to the police upon his return to Zagreb. That actually saved him from the fate of many of his contemporaries, namely, deportation to Goli Otok (Naked Island). He escaped the worst, but not the psychological repression and mental humiliation that taunt-158
