Karl Prantl

_{Pöttsching 1923 - 2010 Pöttsching}

Karl Prantl left his mark on post-war stone sculpture, although he never obtained professional education in this field. He graduated in painting under Albert Paris Gütersloh at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. He then founded the open-air sculpture symposium in St. Margarethen, which was held for the first time in 1959. In the same year, Prantl was commissioned to make a border stone for the Austro-Hungarian border, which eventually found its place in Prantl's birthplace, Pöttsching. The stone, made of St. Margarethen limestone, was intended as a sign of freedom of thought and marked a crucial point in his process of self-discovery.
He perceived the working process as "going out into the free space", the stone becomes the "means to archieve this free thinking - to become free from many constraints, constrictions and taboos". At the same time, he discovers the inherent law of stone: He accepts the density of the material, but not the property of crystalline hardness attributed to it. Prantl does not impose a form on the stone, but allows himself to be guided by the structures of the stone. Inevitably, he does not make any sketches, which would only impose a form on the stone.