Calvary

Péter Prokop completed his studies at the Budapest Academy of Fine Arts as an ordained priest. In the 1950s, he executed two church frescoes, but after the suppression of the 1956 Revolution he was forced to leave Hungary. He settled in Rome, where he lived and worked in Saint Stephen’s House, established for Hungarian émigré priests and pilgrims, until his return to Hungary in 1999. From the 1960s onward, his art turned towards an abstract visual language. His works, created with vivid colours and a light, rapid line, simplified figuration to the point where the subject remains readily recognisable. In the 1970s and 1980s, he sent hundreds of his works by post to Kalocsa and Esztergom. His aim was to bring modern art across the Iron Curtain to Hungary, and to teach in his homeland through visual preaching. His first major exhibition opened in his absence at the Christian Museum in 1979. Today the museum preserves around 700 of his works, out of an oeuvre of approximately 7,000 pieces held in various ecclesiastical institutions and exhibition venues throughout Hungary. Ildikó Kontsek, 2015

Provenance

Donated by the artist, 1978

Exhibitions

• 2015 Diözesanmuseum St. Pölten

Bibliography

• Wolfgang Huber (szerk.): Meisterwerke aus dem Keresztény Múzeum, kiáll.kat, Sankt Pölten 2015., 170
• Kontsek Ildikó: Prokop Péter festőművész (Kalocsa, 1919 – Budapest, 2003) utolsó hazai évei és hagyatéka. in: TÜSKÉS ANNA ed., Omnis creatura significas Tanulmányok Prokopp Mária 70. születésnapjára / Essays in Honour of Mária Prokopp, CentrArt, Budapest, 2009, 315-319;