Albín Polasek, Frenstat p. Radhostem, Czech Republic
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N 49° 32.864 E 018° 12.712
34U E 298327 N 5492083
Albin Polasek - author of statue of pagan god Radegast
Waymark Code: WMCFFT
Location: Moravskoslezský kraj, Czechia
Date Posted: 09/01/2011
Views: 67
The world-famous schulptor Albin Polasek was born in Frenstat pod Radhostem in 1879. He was the seventh son of Josef Polasek, a weaving factory foreman and innkeepe, and Petronila, the daughter of the Frenastat butcher Knezek.
Although he spent most of his life abroad, he remained always emotinally at one with his birthplace. Polasek´s first artistic endeavours were inspired by the local Nativity illustration tradition. The Nativity figurines that he carved in his Frenstat youth were put on display every Christmas in his home in the United States, where he finally movedin 1901.
Albin Polasek graduated as a sculptor from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia. He created dozens of statues. Some of these such as the Woodrow Wilson memorial in Prague, the statue of T.G. Masaryk in Petrvald near Karvina, were dedicated during his lifetime to the former Czechoslovakia. A. Polasek also donated many of his works to Frenstat. In the Church of St. John the Baptis is displayed his painted group of the fourteen Stations of the Cross. Outside the former boy´s school stands the statue Primeval Struggle. It shows the Slav hero fighting to the death with the Germanic wolf. In Frenstat´s Town hall stands the statue Carving His Own Destiny, showing a man sculpturing himself out of stone, pagan god Radegast and the group of Saints Cyril and Methodius, who brought an alphabet to the Slavonic peoples.
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