art on walls

Coventry is very generous with its public art, and puts a great deal on display where everyone can see it as they move around the city. There's plenty of sculpture (most famously the statue of Lady Godiva) and, interestingly, a number of important post-war murals that were intended to enhance the newly built precincts, underpasses and shopping areas, but have mostly ended up being removed and placed elsewhere because they were no longer wanted, needed - or perhaps even looked at.

The most outstanding is this huge relief sculpture carved on Portland stone which is now on the exterior of the Herbert Art Gallery. In their 0riginal location the two sections were tucked away under stairwells and obscured by fountains in a shopping precinct, but they look far more impressive side by side on a 1960s brick wall on a busy street.

This is Man's Struggle by Walter Ritchie, a late pupil of Eric Gill, and something of a wayward character himself. It must have been pretty uncompromising, challenging stuff for its time and I would think a few commissioning councillors got more than they bargained for. But it was a bold and a brave commission in the first place, and is of a piece with the generally bold, modern approach the city took with its post-war buildings and public art. It would have been so easy to look backwards and play it safe and nostalgic. Instead, the council took a gamble, looked at the reality of post-war life which was inevitably going to be tough and very different, and they captured that spirit and energy instead.

There is also the tiled 1958 Cullen Mural which I didn't know about until I got home (good reason to go back - as well as to see the flying saucer-style circular market building), but I did see all the art on the walls of the excellent Herbert Art Gallery.