And so it goes...

Prokop Igor

He was born in Budapest in 1953. He graduated from the Teacher Training College in Eger as a teacher of Biology and drawing in 1978. He studied Biology at József Attila University of Arts between 1981 and 1983 in Szeged, then philosophy in 1984 in Budapest, film aesthetics in 1987 and between 1991 and 1993 he studied design at the University of Applied Arts.

He studied and worked in New York, Heidelberg, Auckland and several other places of the world. Besides painting and drawing he has worked with glass as well for 20 years. The artist has gone through the phases of making lead-glass and tiffany. Fusing glass is the result of a more advanced technology. The process goes like this: the elements of glass coloured in the material are faceted with diamond burnishers and these pieces are melted together horizontally and vertically like a mosaic. The surfaces, panels and pictures reflect the natural forms seen during the author's trips through the eyes of a biologist- artist.

At present he lives and works in Visegrád.

I love the sea, the grass, the tree, the animals, the animate and inanimate world. The material. Am I perhaps a narrow-minded materialist? No, the spirit is immaterial but the material is the worldly manifestation of the spirit. When I worked as a dental technician, I had to cast metal and mould wax, plaster and porcelain. I was not captivated with this narrow range of people.

I studied Biology and drawing and also taught them, I was wandering around in the world, loved the colourful, transparent world of the Cuban seas, the whirling movement of the barracudas, the endless and timeless space of the Mongolian deserts, the chaotic and artistic magic of Indonesia, enjoyed skiing among the peaks of the Elbrus considered even by Reinhold Meissner one of the most amazing natural slopes. I savoured exploring Vanatau, Tonga, Tahiti and Bora Bora and the friendly people there, their songs, sorrows, faith, their endless respect for their beloved islands and enjoyed their unrestricted appetite for beauty, erotica, exuberance and abundance. I was diving in seas and oceans where lemon, steel-blue and red fish were flashing and gleaming with intensive colours never seen before in the tropical sunshine together with corals and plants. The impenetrable rain forests have presented all the variations of green. And the island of real peace: New Zealand. I love it. Although my homesickness drives me home to Hungary, being here I do not know where my real home is and I long to return there. I have travelled around the world and know: it is small, blue and fragile! This is what I see from the height of 11.000 metres. But through my microscope I can sense the cavalcade of similar momentary magic as well. I am an earthling like so many, seemingly animate and inanimate creatures of God abounding with colours and shapes.

As time passes by I have experienced during my trips that all this is perishing. I do not want my children, my students, the explorers of the future not to be able to see this magic. I am presenting some fragments from the endless world and giving them to the spectators with love." These are Igor Jeno Prokop's words about himself, his philosophy and his understanding of the world.

Prokop's Trips:
- 1984 Cuba
- 1985 Mongolia, Caucasus
- 1989 USA, New York and Walhalla
- 1993 Germany, Heidelberg
- 1995 France, Paris
- 1996 Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, Polinesia, USA
- 1997 Ireland, Scotland
- 1998 Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, USA
- 1999 Ireland, Portugal, Madeira
- 2000 Florida, Canada, Ireland
- 2001 New Zealand, Canada, USA - New York
- 2002 New Zealand, Tonga - Nukualofa
- 2003 New Zealand, Vanuatu - Port Villa
- 2004 New Zealand, Portugal, Canada
- 2005 New Zealand, Tunisia

Individual exhibitions:
- Budapest, Graz, Barcelona, Eger, New York, Berlin
- Kecskemét, Heidelberg, Salzburg, Debrecen
- Visegrád, Toronto, St. Pölten, Auckland
- Bécs,Cambridge
- Luxemburg
- Dublin,St.Petersburg,Montreal ,London