1. Franta Belsky was known for large-scale abstract works of public art as well as more iconographic statues and busts of noted 20th-century figures such as Winston Churchill and members of the British Royal Family.
20 Facts About Franta Belsky
1. 2.
Franta Belsky was born in Brno, Czechoslovakia, in 1921, the son of the economist Josef Belsky.
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Franta Belsky's family stemmed originally from the village of Bela, hence the toponymic surname Belsky.
4.
Franta Belsky fought in the Battle of France as a gunner and was twice mentioned in dispatches, once for carving a memorial stone to Czechoslovak soldiers whilst stationed at Cholmondeley, Cheshire, and again in 1944 when he was awarded the Czech bravery award for repairing a telephone line in France while under enemy fire.
5.
Under Churchill's gaze, Franta Belsky thought, "You wait, one day I shall model a statue of you, just like this".
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Franta Belsky was demobbed and returned to Prague after the war, where he found that many of his relations were murdered in the Holocaust.
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Franta Belsky studied under the sculptor Otakar Spaniel at the Academy of Fine Arts, Prague.
8.
Franta Belsky continued his studies at the Royal College of Art, studying under Frank Dobson and John Skeaping, graduating with an Honours Diploma in 1950.
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Franta Belsky received his first public commission for the Festival of Britain in 1951.
10.
Franta Belsky's work included not only traditional statues and busts, but large-scale more abstract works.
11.
Franta Belsky produced a number of statues of Winston Churchill; his 1969 statue at the Winston Churchill Memorial and Library in Fulton, Missouri was commissioned to mark the 25th anniversary of Churchill's "Iron Curtain" speech.
12.
Franta Belsky was the first foreign-born sculptor to create a work for Trafalgar Square, a bust of Admiral Cunningham unveiled in 1970.
13.
Franta Belsky designed the Torsion Fountain at the Shell Centre in London and the Totem sculpture which was erected in 1977 in the Arndale Centre, Manchester.
14.
Franta Belsky's studio was at his cottage in Sutton Courtenay, Oxfordshire.
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In 1990, Franta Belsky returned to Prague and worked on two monumental works, a statue of Winston Churchill outside the British Embassy and a memorial to Czechoslovaks who had served with the British Royal Air Force.
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Franta Belsky was awarded the Medal of Merit by the then President of Czechoslovakia, Vaclav Havel, in 1999.
17.
Franta Belsky died in Abingdon-on-Thames from prostate cancer on 5 July 2000.
18.
Franta Belsky was buried in the churchyard of All Saints' Church, Sutton Courtenay.
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Franta Belsky was prolific sculptor and his works are held by local authority collections across Britain, corporate offices and collections in the United States and Europe.
20.
Five bronze busts by Franta Belsky are held in the National Portrait Gallery, London:.