Vladimir Szabo Art

Vladimir Szabo was a pupil of Gyula Rudnay, István Csók and János Vaszary at the Budapest Academy of Fine Arts between 1924–26. He finished his studies with Ágoston Benkhard some ten years later. In 1931–34, Szabo was on scholarship to Rome, which left its imprint on his choice of religious subjects, in the precision of drawing and the richness in realistic detail. Yet, his painting cannot be labeled realistic in that realism was only one component of his pictures based on a profound insight into human character. Szabo’s interest in visionary ideals played just as great a role in his work as his flair for the grotesque, not to mention his vein of story-telling. Especially, in his later pictures where he let stories flow freely represented in a Baroque swirl of rampant motives. Szabo’s enigmatic, fairy world pictures earned him great popularity towards the end of his life, though his most accomplished period was the 1930s.