Monday 19 February 2018

Beautiful sculptures of gymnastics and yoga

I love sculptures and art in public spaces. Many countries put up statues of famous persons in the city squares and gardens. However, sculptures of persons doing gymnastics, athletics, sports and yoga are not very common. In this post I want to share some images of sculptures related to sports and yoga.

To introduce this theme, the sculpture below shows the Olympics banner being carried by the athletes. This sculpture is located near the Ouchy port on the lake in Lausanne (Switzerland) at the entrance to the Olympics park which hosts the offices of international Olympics committee.

Sculptures of gymnastics and yoga - Lausanne, Switzerland - Images by Sunil Deepak

Bologna (Italy): Let me start with two sculptures from Bologna, where I have lived for many years.

The first sculpture is by Italian sculptor Leonardo Lucchi, who is known for his airy and light looking art. He achieves this effect by showing them in motion, so that only a tiny part of their bodies is touching the ground. In this sculpture he has a teenage boy balancing on a pole, with his arms raised up. He looks ready to make a jump.

Sculptures of gymnastics and yoga - Bologna, Italy - Images by Sunil Deepak

The second sculpture is by the Serbian artist Biljana Petrovic. It has a man sitting with his knees bent, his feet touching, his hands extended clasped tightly in a yoga pose with his rippling muscles straining with the effort.

Sculptures of gymnastics and yoga - Bologna, Italy - Images by Sunil Deepak

Delhi (India):  India does not have many good public sculptures except for those of political figures. However, over the recent years, some good sculptures have been put up in the airports. The next image from Terminal 3 of the Delhi airport showing the 12 asanas of yoga exercise known as Surya Namaskar is one example of these sculptures. The sculptures are by Indian sculptor from Jaipur, Nikhil Bhandari.

Sculptures of gymnastics and yoga - Delhi, India - Images by Sunil Deepak

Geneva (Switzerland): This beautiful sculpture of a gymnast with a ribbon is part of 5 bronze Olympian sculptures by British sculptor Eleanore Cardozo. It is placed in front of the Palais Wilson building, which hosted the League of Nations, before it became the United Nations and shifted to New York. Palais Wilson building now hosts the Human Rights commission of the UN.

Sculptures of gymnastics and yoga - Geneva, Switzerland - Images by Sunil Deepak

Kozhikode (India):  Manancheri park in Kozhikode (old name, Calicut) has many sculptures. Most of these are poorly made and poorly maintained. They are also very clearly inspired by socialist art of 1960s and 1970s. However, one of the sculptures of an acrobatic boy with his legs playfully raised up in the air, transmits the joy of life, similar to the Shirshasana yoga exercise. A similar statue is also placed in Panjim (Goa), close to ferry port. I was unable to find out the name of its sculptor. This sculpture is by K. S. Radhakrishnan (information provided by Deepa Gopal Sunil).

Sculptures of gymnastics and yoga - Kozhikode, India - Images by Sunil Deepak

Lausanne (Switzerland):  The Olympics park in Lausanne, already mentioned above, is full of sculptures about different sports. Two of its sculptures are presented here.

The first sculpture is by the Hungarian artist Gabor Mihaly. It has a group of 3 cyclists on two bicycles and a total of five wheels, which together represent the 5 circles on the Olympics flag.

Sculptures of gymnastics and yoga - Lausanne, Switzerland - Images by Sunil Deepak
The second sculpture is by the famous British and Australian sculptor John Robinson. It has a gymnast girl on a beam. It represents the well known Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci who had received a perfect 10 out of 10 score for her gymnastics in the Montreal Olympics in 1976 and had won 5 gold medals.

Sculptures of gymnastics and yoga - Lausanne, Switzerland - Images by Sunil Deepak
Manchestor (UK): The next image is from a public art exhibition in the First street in Manchestor, showing female figures in different colours who seemed to be doing yoga or acrobatics. These sculptures were created by the Colin Spofforth studio of sculpture and design.

Sculptures of gymnastics and yoga - Manchester, UK - Images by Sunil Deepak

New York (USA):  The sculpture from the central park in New York is by Milton Hebald. It represents Prospero and Miranda from the Shakespeare's play 'The Tempest'. Probably, this sculpture does not strictly fit in the criteria of this post. However, when I saw this sculpture, with their hair and clothes flying up in the air, I thought that it shows a couple doing artistic gymnastics.

Sculptures of gymnastics and yoga - New York, USA - Images by Sunil Deepak

Schio (Italy): I live in Schio (VI) in the north-east of Italy, the next sculpture is from here and it is by a local artist called Mario Converio. It has a gymnast doing a workout with a ring. Balanced on her head, she is floating in the air.

Sculptures of gymnastics and yoga - Schio (VI), Italy - Images by Sunil Deepak

Vicenza (Italy): Here is another work of Leonardo Lucchi. It is similar to the one presented above - here a girl is trying to balance herself on a narrow plank. However, instead of a sense of equilibrium, this sculpture transmits a sense of precariousness, as if the child is going to fall down.

Sculptures of gymnastics and yoga - Vicenza, Italy - Images by Sunil Deepak

At the end, let me conclude this post with a sculpture from Verona (Italy), the city of Romeo and Juliet. This sculpture is by the famous British sculptor Marc Quinn. In this the girl doing a yoga pose is balancing herself on the tip of elbows.

Acrobat by Marc Quinn, Verona, Italy - Images by Sunil Deepak

So did you like my selection of sculptures related to sports, gymnastics and yoga? I think that sports and yoga are good themes for sculptures, also because they are not very common.

Have you seen any good sports related sculptures? Do share information about them.

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13 comments:

rupam sarma said...

Awesome Sculptures, Beautiful pics. Loved the post.

रवि रतलामी said...

वाह बात है ।

pushpendra dwivedi said...

fabulous fantastic post

Sunil Deepak said...

Thanks Rupam :)

Sunil Deepak said...

रवि, बहुत दिनों के बाद तुमसे मुलाकात हुई. आशा है तुम स्वस्थ्य हो. धन्यवाद

Sunil Deepak said...

I am glad that you liked it so much. Thanks Pushpendra :)

Unknown said...

http://www.wikiwand.com/cs/David_Moje%C5%A1%C4%8D%C3%ADk

Sunil Deepak said...

Thanks David for sharing the link to your sculptures

Saurabh Chawla said...

Beautiful. Good amount of effort put in! Loved the collection of pictures.

Sunil Deepak said...

I am happy that you liked my selection! :) Thanks

Deepa Gopal said...

The sculpture in Manaanchira square is by K S Radhakrishnan, an eminent sculptor of India, recognized world wide. This sculpture is called 'Kaalapravaham' (or Time-Tide). The curled up figure is called Musui. His sculptures are almost always of 2 characters - Musui and Mayya! I am actually preparing a blog post on this particular sculpture...will be posting it in a month or two.
This is a wonderful post with pictures of such awesome sculptures and great info.

Sunil Deepak said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Sunil Deepak said...

Thanks Deepa Gopal for information about K. S. Radhakrishnan and the sculpture from Kozhikode. Often in India they write the name of politicians who inaugurated the monument but do not write the name of the person who made the monument! I look forward to reading your post about this sculpture

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