Plastic art in public areas in the period “Normalization”

Documentation, popularization and protection of the sculptures in the 1970s and the1980s  in Czechoslovakia

After the period of great experiments in the 1960s, monumental sculpture for the public areas was going through a creative stagnation in the 1970s and the 1980s. Results of the Russian occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1968 and social and political changes caused that free experiment will not be tolerable. The period called “Normalization” just started.

On the other hand, there were more tenders and social orders then ever before. Huge amount of orders was guaranteed by law, that obliged every state building (overwhelming majority of all building projects) to spend 1% - 4% of its budget on „decoration“. This „4% art“ comprised then esthetical dominant features around forming housing estates, health centers, shopping centers, production enterprises and administrative buildings.

Current brutal handling of and disregard for sculptures for public areas from recent times of the Normalization, in spite of their unquestionable quality, has forced our group to systematic documentation and popularization of the sculptures. We hope to change the public attitude to these monuments of culture and to prevent hereby the vandalism.