Joy Ride

TL2324 STEVENAGE CENTRAL SQUARE

733-0/3/10006 Joy-ride

GV II

Sculpture. 1958-9 by Franta Belsky. Bronze mother and child on circular stone plinth, the mother carrying her little boy on her back. The mother figure is remarkable for the integration of her dress and skin as a single, tensile form. Franta Belsky (1921- ) came to Britain in 1938 from Bmo, Czechoslovakia, and combined studies at the Royal College of Art with military service. Although today as well known as a portraitist as for his public sculpture, it was with 'Joy-ride' and the slightly earlier 'Lesson' (LB Tower Hamlets, 1956) that he achieved maturity. He was commissioned by Stevenage Development Corporation to produce something symbolic for a recently created New Town, the Corporation having been inspired by the use of symbolic sculpture in the rebuilding of bombed Rotterdam. The figures are thus symbolic of the arrival of a new generation in a New Town. The vertical composition with its high centre of interest is a response to its setting on top of a platform with stairs and railings to either side, and a carefully preserved group of trees below. It is amongst his most distinctive works, specifically designed for a distinguished location. (Franta Belsky: Sculpture: Prague and London: -1922).

Listing NGR: TL2379524091