Paintings

Gabriel Szohner was born in Hungary in the late 1930s. After losing his family during the war, up until he was ten, he was bought and sold as a farm hand, then abandoned and left to fend for himself on the streets of Budapest. Three years later, he was apprehended by the authorities and placed in his first school. After arriving in Canada, he started to write and has published two novels, the better known of which is The Immigrant. Late in 1981, Szohner began to paint. His output is prolific and it is from his collection of over 200 paintings that this show was culled. Of the work, Gabriel says: "Each painting is from man, of man, for man. Protesting, begging, screaming out against decadence and apathy, against war, final solutions and nuclear holocausts." The works are bright, expressionistic. A former sculptor, Gabriel's understanding of the human form is complete. The lines are exaggerated and distorted to show figures in the throws of life; whether playing an instrument or screaming out accusingly, each is done with knowledge and style.