Culture meets nature: Exhibition opening "100 years of Karl Prantl"
Article from 01.05.2024Karl Prantl, internationally renowned sculptor from Austria, would have celebrated his 100th birthday this year. To mark this special anniversary, Großglockner Hochalpenstraßen AG (GROHAG), in collaboration with Ferdinand Rudolf Porsche and Galerie Frey, is exhibiting two of his monumental stone sculptures made of serpentine Tauern green against the equally imposing backdrop of rock and mountain along the Grossglockner High Alpine Road in the Hohe Tauern National Park. A festival of high culture meets a festival of nature in the high mountains!
Karl Prantl will celebrate his 100th birthday on 5 November 2023. But what connects the sculptor, who is known and appreciated far beyond the borders of Austria, with the Grossglockner High Alpine Road? It is the material that Prantl focussed on in his work: Stone. Because Prantl's works are exclusively made of stone. Among other things, the artist worked with "Serpentin-Tauerngrün", a stone from the foot of the Großglockner, which has its origins in the Glockner Group and the Hohe Tauern. And so, as part of the centenary presentation, two sculptures will temporarily find their way back to their origins - in summer 2023 and summer 2024.
Two stone sculptures made of serpentinite ("Glocknerstein") return to their origins
Today's opening of the exhibition took visitors to the two locations of the artworks:
At Fuscher Törl (viewing platform, 2,428 m), the 11-tonne "Stone for Meditation Angel" (1987/88, 220 x 410 x 45 cm), made of serpentine Tauern green from the Hohe Tauern region, towers into the sky and, in conjunction with the imposing view of the Grossglockner, Austria's highest mountain, attracts the attention of visitors.
The second stone sculpture "Ring", also weighing 11 tonnes, welcomes guests directly at the newly opened "F.A.T. Mankei" inn on the Fuscher Lacke, which has now been taken over and rebuilt by Ferdinand Rudolf Porsche, at almost 2,300 m above sea level.