Djordje Prudnikoff

It was the hand of God that joined a Serbian woman and a Russian man, who had come to Serbia as boy, with his parents, after the October Revolution in Russia. So, on April 19th 1939. in Uzice, they got their son Djordje - Djordje Prudnikov In 1946. the family moved to Belgrade. After completing his grammar school, Djordje was admitted to the Academy of Fine Arts.

Few months later he left it to enroll at the Academy of Applied Arts where he graduated in the class of Professor Mihailo Petrov. During his studies Prudnikoff was rewarded several times for graphic design. Graphic (industrial) design was his preoccupation while staying in Vienna, in 1967. Before leaving for Vienna, after visiting an industrial design exhibition that inspired him, he started to do industrial design himself. It was design of completely new shapes of glasses. In Vienna, he had contacts with ROSENTHAL, GRALGLASS and other companies that belonged to Euro "Group 21".

They were not only full of compliments for the artist but offered him a cooperation. After 5 months spent in Vienna, he returned to Belgrade for a summer holiday. Nostalgic feelings overwhelmed him and he remained at home. That was most likely the reason why some of his ideas were used while he was away, and without his approval. One of his ideas even won the ''Oscar'' for design in 1969. in Germany. At the International competition for new ideas in furniture design, in 1968 in Italy, he was granted a reward and 3 months scholarship by the company called SORMANII from Milan for perfecting himself in furniture design. During and after his studies he was mostly occupied with creations in the field of applied arts and took part in projects for furniture and applied pottery for several well-known Italian enterprises.

His work was selected for the ITALIAN DESIGN exhibitions in many European metropolises, and that was the time when Italian design was considered one of the best in the world. While staying in Italy, he established a good cooperation with GABBIANELLI (and some others), and achieved his greatest success.