Artportal.hu

[Károly, Beri Pongor]

(9. July 1951., Nyírbéltelek – )

Hemoved to nyírmihályd in 1954. His family was very poor, so he also had to work in the fields. At the age of 16, he started to work in Budapest. He accepted every job that was offered to him, and studied welding and fashion tailoring for men and women.

He took up painting because of a recurring internal call in December, 1975, showed his works to a famous painter from Debrecen who became his mentor. They were collaborating for ages, then Beri Pongor attended famous artist colonies and free schools, where the experienced painters helped him to develop. He first presented his pictures in Budapest in 1979, then in the country and abroad. He found the way to express himself rather easily, due to his constant and immersed study and work.

In the 1980’s the socialist state police tried to make his life miserable, but the tortures, the false accusations and the official procedures could not stop him. On 7th December, 1987 he emigrated to Germany with his pregnant wife and one-year-old daughter. Their destination was a country „with no iron curtains, and where the soul and thoughts can fly free”. He came back to Hungary in January, 1990, and settled down in Nyírmihálydi.

He had numerous shows both in the capital city and the whole country and in Paris, Schwenningen, New York, Gent, Washington, Tel-Aviv and Tokyo. The exhibition of his lifetime works, named was held in Budapest in 1996, in Beijing in 2007 and in then at the National Gallery as part of The Colourful Dreams of Remembrance. This travelling exhibition was shown in Szolnok, Eger, Pécs, Salgótarján, Miskolc and Szekszárd in 2008 and 2009.