These sculptural elements became an integral part of the urban fabric in many communities, reflecting the community’s life and celebrating professional pride. However, today we can view them not only in terms of their artistic value, but also as valuable evidence of how people used to work in the past – including many skills and processes that are now obsolete. The selective catalogue of architectural sculpture consists of individual entries giving basic descriptions of each building, alongside a listing of architectural elements (including photographs). This catalogue showcases the wide variety of iconography used, and in some cases the outstanding artistic value of individual works, many of which are deserving of attention both from experts and the general public.
A presentation of architectural sculpture with the theme of work formed part of the exhibition “Workers Die, But Work Lives On”. Due to space restrictions and the exhibition concept, it was only possible to present a very limited number of works. More details about these works, and their remarkable iconographic and artistic variety, can be found in the large-scale publication “Celebrating the Everyday. Architectural sculpture with attributes of work, transport, commerce and finance” – the first Czech publication to explore this aspect of architectural sculpture. Here we present selected works as illustrative examples.
Czech, English
Texts: Renata Skřebská
352 pages, paperback
Published by the Ostrava branch of the National Heritage Institute in collaboration with the Gallery of Fine Arts in Ostrava.
ISBN 978-80-88240-21-1
The Gallery of Fine Arts in Ostrava is funded by the Moravian-Silesian Region.
