Vital Art

Sculpture is a little thin on the ground in North Wales.
It's the way of the world.
I do miss visiting the Yorkshire Sculpture Park which is situated on the outskirts of Sheffield- a huge expanse of parkland dotted with an ever changing collection of art sculptures was a favourite Sunday trip out for us, even on the most inhospitable of days.

There is one holocaust memorial sculpture which I would very much like to visit and experience.
On the banks of the Danube in the city of Budapest Sculptors Gyula Pauer and Can Togay  have laid down a harrowing spectical of dozens upon dozens of old fashioned shoes.




The sculpture is a memorial to the hundreds of Jewish civilians murdered by the ruling arrow cross party during the last years of the Second World War. The victims were marched to the banks of the Danube river, forced to strip naked, and then were shot by firing squad....their bodies floating away in the water.
The shoes are a stark, simple and poignant testimony to the atrocity

Here are a few impressive public sculptures
Can anyone tell me where they are?
  












How many can you recognise?


62 comments:

  1. The boys are in Singapore, diving and jumping into the River. The Library ruin is in Melbourne outside the State Library of Victoria. And that's all I can recognise. But they are all gorgeous wherever they might be.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Im not sure i could handle your holocaust memorial. Id be bawling just being there.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I have seen the spider. I love the sign behind the pigs saying 96% fat free.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I don't recognize ANY of the sculptures, but find them interesting all the same.

    the shoes...they were what got to me at the holocaust museum in washington dc. who wore them, and WHY did they have to die for some stupid fanatic of "racial purity"? what good could the people who wore those shoes have done for the world had they lived?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anne Marie......you should have guessed number 8!

      Delete
  5. I believe the pigs are in Adelaide. Australia and the salmon through the wall is in Portland, Oregon USA. In Trelawnyd, a giant bronze scotch egg plonked outside the church would attract masses of sightseers.Good street art enriches our lives.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. With a huge bloody bite out of it too!

      Delete
  6. Anonymous11:19 am

    I certainly know two, one in my city and one in another Australian capital city. We saw the shoes on the river bank from the tram as we passed by. There is some strong anti Semitism in Hungary. Someone put pigs trotters in the shoes a while ago. While Budapest is a terrific and beautiful city to visit for tourists, you don't want to scratch too much below the Hungarian surface.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. What else bothered you?

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:10 pm

      I took a good look at Hungarian politics before we travelled and I did not much like what I learnt. But a certain couple whose name might begin with H and are never political when writing their blog told us some quite disturbing things about life for gays and other minorities in Hungary.

      Delete
    3. Interesting..off to look the system up in a but more detail

      Delete
  7. What amazing sculptures and i have no idea where any of them are! There's something so powerful about art in any form but sculptures particularly get me. Great range, thanks for posting.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wee....
      ( I hope wee means small and not incontinent)
      They stimulate the imagination eh?

      Delete
  8. Failed on this knowledge test! but, they are all wonderful,love them!
    Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Louise Bourgeois Spider outside Tate Mod a few years ago.

    You would like Christian Boltanski's work on memory. Have a look if you have time.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous1:07 pm

    The horse sculpture is in Las Colinas, an office park in suburban Dallas.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mustangs_at_Las_Colinas

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes!...love the splashing water at their hooves

      Delete
  11. Anonymous1:09 pm

    I don't know where they are but you saved the best for last .

    ReplyDelete
  12. John, I just saw the '.Horses in the Fountain' one the other day on line....someone posted it. Now do you think I can remember where it is? No. I will let you know.
    The Danube River memorial sculpture would do me in, I am afraid. Just looking at this turns my stomach. What a tragedy. I do appreciate the importance of it being there however.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jimbo.. No words are necessary for sculptures like those shoes

      Delete
  13. 2nd one is at Singapore near to Raffles hotel, saw it last year on stop-over to Oz.........I thought the 3rd one, spider... was last year at Liverpool near the Mersey River
    Tilly

    ReplyDelete
  14. I have seen most of them on line, but have no idea where they actually are. You wouldn't catch me anywhere near that spider though :-(

    I hope you are going to give us the answers to this!!

    ReplyDelete
  15. The sculptures are all new to me, and I am so happy to learn about them.

    ReplyDelete
  16. I recognized none, but was impressed by them all!

    ReplyDelete
  17. Good on Yorkshire Pudding for getting the salmon through the wall in Portland Oregon. One of our managers from work lives in that building. And the spider is in London.

    ReplyDelete
  18. My Canadian friend who lives in Ottawa has posted the huge spider several times.
    I adore the horses and the children jumping into the water.
    But the shoe sculpture would have me breaking down in tears.
    What a strong statement !
    Tucson has a wonderful public sculpture program. I have been slowly taking photos of them. Now because of your post I want to get out more and take more photos.

    cheers, parsnip

    ReplyDelete
  19. I remember the spider being inside the huge hall in the Tate Modern…when it first opened I think. I don't know the others, but they are all marvellous. Do you know anything about the characters coming out of the wall ? There must be a story behind that ! Along with other commenters I find the shoes very moving. I have been to the Jewish memorial in Berlin, but it doesn't really say much to me!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I saw it then Francis......I fell in love with , I fell in love with Boltsanski's work ever since

      Delete
  20. ps. Just googled the wall one, so I have found out all about it!!

    ReplyDelete
  21. I don't know any of them, but I'm glad to have seen them here so I can check further. Except the spider. I'll give that a pass :)

    ReplyDelete
  22. I am sure I patted those pigs in Adelaide and the Spider was outside Tate Modern for the Louise Bourgeois exhibition. I took a photo very similar to this with it looming over St Pauls.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Good guess..... Most people know at least two

      Delete
  23. Only know the spider, as Jenny says above. But I love them all - especially the last but one which I think is my favourite.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Well done all
    Mustangs By Robert Glen, Las Colinas, Texas, USA
    People of the River....Singapore
    Spider Tate Modern London
    Hippos, Taipei, Taiwan
    Sinking Building, Melbourne, Australia
    Man Hanging Out , Prague
    Salmon, Portland , Oregon
    Break through from the mold,, Philadelphia USA
    Rundle Mall Pigs, Adelaide , Australia

    ReplyDelete
  25. John the tripod one made me think of our very own tripod sculpture, erected in honour of the rebirthed Wellington film industry. http://cdn.artofadventuring.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/tripod.jpg.jpg

    ReplyDelete
  26. It's the collection of shoes at the Imperial War Museum which reduces me to teers

    ReplyDelete
  27. I don't know any of them except that they're all brilliant. The sculpture of the shoes says everything.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Doesn't it? Nothing at all needs explaining

      Delete
  28. Can Holland enter your gallery please? Check out 'Beach Animals':
    http://www.strandbeest.com/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I loved these.......when he put little sails on them..off they would trot!

      Delete
    2. they are endearing aren't they? they really seem to live and make you feel for them. Just electric pipes, strings and sails...

      Delete
    3. Thanks for putting me onto the "Beach Animals" they are amazing.

      Jo in Auckland, NZ

      Delete
  29. I love 'The Angel of the North' and of course, closer to my home,there's nothing quite like 'The Kelpies', which I recently visited and was awestruck by.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Do you like to make me cry? The Holocaust always brings tears. What an artful way to represent the lost.

    I loved all the sculptures, especially the horses.

    I don't have a clue where they are because if it ain't here, I don't know where it is.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The horses are my favourite too
      Love the foul at the back

      Delete
  31. Anonymous10:11 pm

    This post made me look up that sculptor you told me about...Gormley...on the beach. Very cool, also.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I know Crosby beach very well..... His men in the sand are awesome

      Delete
    2. He also did 'The Angel of the North' - worth a look.

      Delete
  32. Love all the sculptures. We have a Sculpture by the Sea exhibition here in Sydney every year. Along the cliff walk from Bondi to Bronte beaches. Its always very popular for a weekend stroll.

    http://www.sculpturebythesea.com/image-gallery/bondi.aspx?Year=2013&Location=Outdoor

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for that...I loved the CHESHIRE GRIN

      Delete
  33. The horses are in Irving, Texas. The Mustangs of Las Colinas. They are spectacular in person.

    ReplyDelete
  34. The only one I know and have seen in person is the horses in the water. They are at Las Colinas, near Irving (suburban Dallas, Texas, my old stomping grounds). Some of the others are downright scary. Thank you, John, for today's post.

    ReplyDelete
  35. I don't know where any of them are but I loved them all. Thanks, I have something to do this afternoon now :)

    Jo in Auckland, NZ

    ReplyDelete
  36. The holocaust memorial made up of old shoes is very poignant. I've seen Louise Bourgeois' Spider but I didn't recognise any of the others. Thanks for posting such wonderful sculptures, though.

    ReplyDelete
  37. The Hanging Man isAbout Art - The Hanging Man

    The Hanging man is a sculpture by the Czech sculptor David Černý—whose work tends to be very controversial. The life-size sculpture is of the famous psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. Černý says the work is intended to express the human dilemma of living life or letting go.

    Drawing police and fire-crew attention in response to reports of possible suicide attempts, the sculpture was last on display at Open Concept Gallery in Grand Rapids, Michigan, after touring other cities within the U.S. and Europe, and before being reinstalled in Prague’s historic Old Town section.

    David Černý (born December 15, 1967) works can be seen in many locations in Prague, the city where he was born. He gained notoriety in 1991 by painting a Soviet tank pink that served as a war memorial in central Prague. As the Monument to Soviet tank crews was still a national cultural monument at that time, his act of civil disobedience was considered "hooliganism" and he was briefly arrested. Find out more about him and his works at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_%C4%8Cern%C3%BD

    ReplyDelete

I love all comments Except abusive ones from arseholes