Lajči Pandur
The graphic artist and painter Lajči Pandur was born on the 25th of October, 1913, in Lendava where he attended primary and secondary school. He continued his studies in Zalaegerszeg in 1925 and studied at the Academy of Fine Arts of the University of Zagreb from 1930 onwards. After a while, he returned to Lendava where he started working as an art class teacher. When he got the chance to continue his studies in Budapest, he decided to leave his birth town once again. Those years spent in the Hungarian capital brought him many new experiences and impacted his world view.
The years when his artistic and human personalities were maturing proved to be kind to him as he had excellent professors around him who shared with him their versatile wealth of expertise. Artists found in the young Pandur a prolific and talented follower who used his acquired knowledge to develop his own artistic vision. Pandur did not return to Lendava until 1945. That was the time when he needed to “pay his dues” to the post-war period and hence worked as a propaganda painter and decorator under the Russian command. A year later, he got a job as a teacher at the grammar school in Ravne and later, in 1949, in Maribor.
Pandur dealt with diverse topics in his artistic work. From 1945 onwards, when he returned to Slovenia, he started to devote himself intensely to the topic of Prekmurje. This is the period when his figures come to life with an uncontrollable life force. Huge compositions, the intertwinement of human and animal bodies, as well as picturesque backgrounds all appear in his work. His landscapes are recognisable merely by the typical local colours he uses and by the high horizons he depicts.
Pandur´s artistic creations received a variety of awards. His works were exhibited at home as well as abroad. He liked to participate in different art colonies, at conventions and international exhibitions. The great artist died on the 7th of May 1973 in Maribor.
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