Zsakó attended the secondary school of art as the pupil of Róbert Csíkszentmihályi from 1968 to 1972. Then he tried his hand at several trades: he was a plaster caster, wood-cuter, loader, gravestone-carver. In 1979 he was admitted to the Academy of Fine Arts and graduated in 1984 as a pupil of Tamás Vígh. He learnt to draw and model well in the Strawberry Garden [= Academy]. He reveled in making studies, modeling figures for a long time, then, having attained the tricks of the trade - almost by a law of nature - he became uncertain, starting a search for his own style. To the question of what next, a study tour of Switzerland, an exhibition of Polynesian art, as well as the works of Antelámi, Giacometti and Klee gave him the answer. Back home, he felt he had to start from scratch. He realized that the perfect reproduction of the sight is copying, not art. He became aware that the human and animal figures he modeled acquired their essence by their symbolic meaning.

In Hungarian art, it is first of all the work of József Jakovits that was influenced by prehistoric forms, then in the early ‘70s, the young Géza Sama, then György Chesslay and Attila Mata in the early 80s, mainly upon the influence of the new wave, began to discover archaic art in addition to folklore. These artists, however, mainly worked in wood, while Zsakó always insisted on classical materials, bronze and to a smaller extent stone (but to be quite precise, it must be noted that he also made plastic statues, but the use of this material was mainly motivated by the pressure of money.)

One year after graduation, he showed his tiny figures at the Helikon Gallery - warriors (Warrior with mace, 1985) and slightly surrealistic and idol-like statuettes symbolizing womanhood (Birdheaded, 1985) whose forms have determined his art to this day. In 1987 he won the Scholarship of Rome. During his study period, he traveled much in Northern Italy, including the alabaster quarry at Volterra, he admired the Roman alabaster statues and was captured by the reclining female and male figures on the Etruscan sarcophagi.

In Canada, he tried to exhibit at various galleries, but the motivation derived from European culture and the sexual themes were not received with understanding. The Canadians are prudish - he said to me. It is no wonder his works were mainly dealt with by gallery owners of European origin (Lukács Gallery, EuroArt Gallery, DelBello Gallery). In 1990, he had a one-man show at the Spectator Gallery.

In the Hungarian sculpture of the eighties, first of all constructive endeavors were set against the official trend of depleted forms. In this context, Istvan Zsako managed to create a mode of expression characterized by archaic forms and irony, as well as stressed sexuality, which is always symbolical. The evocation of prehistoric forms relates Zsakó’s art to that of Géza Samu in a sense, though it is more classical: in his references, elements of Greek and Roman classical art also crop up.

One of the decisive pieces of his early period is Bird (1985). This small statue of a flat-headed, large-legged winged being with spherical eyes is simultaneously determined by the grotesque sincere charm of children’s dough figures and the transcendental mysteriousness of prehistoric creators. Another key figure of this early period is the sun-headed, huge-legged Sun-idol-child (Little Sun Man) his arms stretched, his eyes holes, and his head shooting beams of ray. These small yet monumental figures with green patina were then followed by the warrior and the female fertility figures with huge vulvae, the heads of the latter being replaced by some stylized bird heads. In place of the heads of the warriors, empty helmets are found. Reviewing Zsakó’s exhibition at the Helikon Gallery, Tamás Vígh stated: “these statues are also fetishes, their aura is exotic, and their main aesthetic worth is their intimacy.” One may add to this idea that despite their small size, the statues are monumental and carry something of the art of prehistoric ages when men and gods were in direct contact, and, like the fertility statue of the late stone-age La Polichinelle, they emphatically refer to love, sexuality, which theme is one of the central motors of art - whether overtly or covertly stated. The warriors, being in low relief, remind of the herms of the Dionysos cult whose main feature is their spear-like phallus jutting out of their flatly modeled body.

The transcendental ideas, myths, idols have a special appeal to artists who would like to gather something, however tiny morsels they may be, from eternity. Zsakó’s most recent works are also idols such as the Red-nosed (1997). This figure with holes as eyes, a large red nose, a bird on his head, grinning frightfully with teeth scretched into the material, is also a cultic statue symbolizing masculinity, just as its more playful, grotesque brothers holding birds on their heads and extended hands. The birds, like all winged creatures, fly about in the sky, so they are closer to the gods, thus in most cultures they are positive symbols (Birdman, 1996).

István Zsakó’s statues of women are also idols, cultic fertility symbols rather than flesh-and-blood women. One example is his plastic statue the Bird-headed of 1995, a variant of a small statue made ten years earlier.

After the solo figures, the sculptors paired up his male and female idols. These twin statues feature a Moon-headed female figure with four or six breasts - the Moon being of female character, the receiver of light - and a Sun-headed male figure with an erect penis - the Sun being the most important celestial being, the giver of light, the annihilator of darkness (Sun and Moon, 1996).

A more recent group of his sculptures include female idols, their heads being replaced by temples with tympanums and columns or simply with houses (Pagan Shrine, 1996), evoking the ancient Greek myth of virgins sitting on the temple steps and waiting for a stranger to take their virginity. These works also indicate that Zsakó was also influenced by post-modern ideas. Another characteristic of his mode of expression is variability. A female figure, warrior, Amazon, idol or temple-headed figure is made in several variants, which all remind of the basic type but are all different at the same time.

Istvan Zsako statues are significant works of contemporary sculpture: they are modern-time idols, enigmatic mysterious, sometimes playful variations on our subconscious ego, of sexuality, love, masculinity and femininity.