ANTAL SPROK
My World of Wood
Jul. 29, – Nov. 1, 2010
With his creations that can be regarded as something between furniture and sculpture, the Hungarian master carpenter Antal Sprok who was born in Nagymágocs in the Comitatus Csongrád in 1955 reaches beyond the limits of creative and formal freedom that are attributed to pieces of furniture like cupboards and chairs by popular belief. In his work, he often draws on fairy tales, grotesque mythical creatures and the fantastic. The drawers, shelves and compartments he takes over in the extraordinarily elaborate fashion of a master craftsman from conventional furniture, are integrated in an almost organic manner in the animal or human forms surrounding them. From afar, this reminds the viewer of a burlesque adaptation of the artistic court carpentry of the Renaissance and Baroque periods whose ornately fashioned chests, goblets and containers could not only be used for valuables, but were also designed as small art chambers.
The exhibition in Hirschwirtscheuer was organized in cooperation with the Hungarian Würth Group company, after the collector and entrepreneur Reinhold Würth became acquainted with the strange works of Antal Sprok during a visit to Hungary.
