Prihoda István

Prihoda was a painter and graphic artist, active in the first half of the 20th century.

After finishing his studies at the Art Academy of Budapest, he took part in several exhibitions with his paintings and etchings. He won prizes with his printed graphic sheets.

During World War I, he served at the Russian front, where he was captured and became a prisoner of war. During the revolution in February he managed to escape and flee home. In 1919 he designed one propaganda poster for the new regime, the Hungarian Soviet Republic. The poster popularized books and readings to the workers. Later, in the early 1920s he created a propaganda poster for the opposite political side, that is, for a rightist party which intended to set monarchy back. Both posters are using lighting effects to achieve monumentality and expressivity. On the first one, the light comes from the background what gives a feeling of monumentality to the reading worker and his child standing next to him. The second poster shows angels raising the Hungarian royal crown to the sky, while the map of Hungary before Wrld War I shows up beneath it.

Besides these, Prihoda created other poster designs during the 1920s and 1930s, advertising bars, theatre shows, Philips radio, or the loan of the League of Nations. In the 1920s he was working on book illustrations and graphic series.                                                                                                                           .