A Life Rooted in Prešov Jozef Bendík began his path far from the academies of Europe, starting with a vocational education at a woodworking school in Prešov. His early days were spent working as an assistant laborer after finishing his studies in 1919. It was under the guidance of Július Törok, a painter and drawing teacher, that the first inclinations toward visual art appeared. This foundation led him to Prague, where he studied at the School of Applied Arts and later at the Academy of Fine Arts. A year spent in Rome on a scholarship allowed him to study the architecture of ancient monumen…