Katarína Hubová
Toys made by artists – not only out of wood, but also out of textiles and other available materials – are often associated with the production of one-off items. They were usually designed and made from the beginning of the 1950s in the studios of artist and designers as original items, which was reflected in their price and availability. In the mid-1950s, Václav Kautman, followed later by Vladimír Kompánek, lay the foundations for the contemporary vision of wooden toy design. Their simple, stylised animal shapes or carnival figures moved somewhere along the line between a practical object and fine art. Contemporary examples of artists’ wooden toys include the works of Marián Huba, Karol Krčmár, Tibor Uhrín, Michal Hanula and Zdeno Hogh.