Sculptures have always divided public opinion
EYEBROWS were raised, brows furrowed and heads scratched this week in 1997 when a menagerie of bronze animals appeared in Cheltenham’s town centre.
A 10-foot tall rabbit hopped into Imperial Gardens, complemented by a flock of metal sheep in the Skillicorne garden behind the Town Hall.
Most enigmatic of all, a Minotaur with its arm round a hare settled in the Prom as though perusing the offerings in Cav House’s shop window.
All were the work of Cirencester sculptor Sophie Ryder and were cast in Chalford by Pangolin Editions.
The bunny hopped it and the sheep moved to pastures new, but the Minotaur and Hare stayed despite a fearful kerfuffle about the 2.5 tonnes figures.
Some objectors declared the statue pagan. Others said the Minotaur was, well ahem, too graphic.
But a group of enthusiasts raised the necessary £50,000 to keep the enigmatic piece which amuses visitors and is held in affection by many locals to
this day.
How strange to think that in the permissive 1990s people were concerned about a bronze mythical creature letting it all hang out, while in the 1920s and ’30s, The Kiss by Auguste Rodin depicting a man and woman in passionate embrace and the altogether, was free for all in the town’s art gallery - and nobody said a word about it.
Statues have divided public opinion and fired heated debate in Gloucester.
The slim figure of a man with his hands cupped to his ears that celebrates the dawn of the jet age and Gloucester’s place in the history of aviation certainly invoked passionate response.
The original idea was that the figure should be naked, but caution prevailed and the 10ft tall, bronze statue – cast in the London studio of artist Simon Stringer - eventually appeared with trousers on its plinth on Northgate Street in April 1999.
At the time of its unveiling plans were afoot for the statue to be complemented by others called the Bowmaker, Bellmaker and Railway Worker. They are yet to appear.
Anthony Stones, the artist responsible for the figure of the Emperor Nerva in Gloucester, more recently created the statue of Gustav Holst that has graced Cheltenham’s Imperial Gardens since 2008.
Unusually, the likeness of Cheltenham’s most famous composer was unveiled to more or less universal approval – but ever since people have complained that it faces the wrong way.
Tewkesbury has its own controversial statue.
Outside the Abbey visitors’ centre is a bronze called Touching Souls, which depicts four children from different ethnic groups sitting in a circle with their feet in contact.
It’s the work of American Mico Kaufman and is a replica of a statue by the same artist that stands outside a church in Tewkesbury, Massachusetts.
When the parochial church council in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, applied for planning permission to install the sculpture, the borough planners said it would not be suitable claiming it was too low to blend in with the area outside the historic Abbey.
Permission was granted and the £15,000, two tonne bronze sculpture was installed by members of Royal Logistics Corps based at Ashchurch.
Arguably the most dramatic sculptures in the county are the Mounted Knights at the Stonehills roundabout on Tewkesbury bypass.
The Battlefield Society mooted the idea of a statue, or something similar, to commemorate the battle of Tewkesbury, which took place during the War of the Roses in 1471 between the Yorkists and Lancastrians.
A competition was arranged in which artists were invited to submit pieces for consideration and at a meeting in January 2001, Tewkesbury Town Council and the Battlefield Society were unanimous in choosing the proposed work of Phil Bews and Diane Gorvin from Coleford in the Forest of Dean.
The two artists took their inspiration for the monumentally scaled oak constructions from Tewkesbury’s timber framed buildings. Symbolising the Yorkists is a five metre high horse carrying a knight located on the roundabout, while the Lancastrian army is represented by a second rider-less horse, which stands on the roadside verge south of the roundabout with its head bowed in defeat.
The sculpture was placed in situ in 2003 and cost £30,000.
Phil Bews and Diane Gorvin were also responsible for the bronze coal miner commemorating the Northern United Colliery in Drybrook.