Beschreibung:

Garden Statue: An important and monumental carved sandstone figure of a Russian revolutionary machine gunner mid 20th century 183cm.; 72ins high This lot and lots 355 and 357^ originally stood on the roof of the Communist Party Headquarters in Prague^ and were removed following the Velvet Revolution of 1991. In 1950 a set of six statues were commissioned of which three are offered here. Each was carved from a two ton block of sandstone^ and since Czechoslovakia had recently become a Communist satellite^ they fulfilled a primarily propaganda role in glorifying the exploits of the October 1917 revolution. It is certainly no coincidence that lot 357 looks like an idealised heroic representation of Stalin himself^ who^ prior to his death in 1953^ still ruled the USSR with an iron fist. Given pride of place on the parapet of the Communist party headquarters^ which later became the Lenin Museum^ they were carved collectively by three of the leading Czechoslovakian sculptors of the time^ Svata Hajerova^ Irena Sedlecka and Ludvig Kodym. All three were awarded the prize of City of Prague and were Laureates of the State Prize for previous achievements. Of the three Irena Sedlecka is the only one still living and who went on to become a well-known sculptor in the West. Born in 1928 in Plzeò^ Czechoslovakia^ she studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague and was awarded the Lenin Prize for sculpture before fleeing the communist regime in 1967. Her first private commission in Britain^ in 1975^ was from Kathleen Hunt of Walthamstow^ for a 70cm resin statue of the Virgin Mary and the baby Jesus (The Madonna). She has sculpted many monumental portraits and busts since^ including Freddie Mercury of Queen^ now in Montreux^ Switzerland; Beau Brummell in Piccadilly^ London^ and many in private collections. (Her statue of Mercury served as a model for the large illuminated statue that currently dominates the front of the Dominion Theatre in London since the May 2002 premiere of the musical We Will Rock You.) Commissioned portrait heads include Laurence Olivier (she also modelled the huge head used for his appearance in Dave Clarks musical Time at the Dominion Theatre)^ Donald Sinden^ Paul Eddington^ Richard Briers^ Jimmy Edwards^ Ted Moult^ Bobby Charlton^ Lord Litchfield and Sir Frank Whittle. In August 1992 her work was shown at the Czech Embassy in London as part of an exhibition devoted to the work of five distinguished Czech émigré sculptors. She has been married several times^ lastly to the sculptor Franta Belsky^ who died in 2000. In late 2010^ visual artist Aleksandra Mir befriended Sedlecká. A series of interviews in the following spring led to the publication of a monograph on Sedleckás life and work together with an unsolicited proposal of bringing the statue^ now exiled in Montreux^ back to London on temporary loan and to place it on the 4th Plinth in Trafalgar square. The idea has been met with varying reactions while the petition continues to gather signatures from all over the world.