AUSTRIA

Sculpture by Adolf Ryszka "Composition" in Sankt Margarethen
Sankt Margarethen in Burgenland
1969
Technical data: sandstone, height 175, width 325 cm

The sculpture is located on the site of an open-air stone sculpture quarry (Symposion Europaischer Bildhauer). Exact address: Römersteinbruch, 7062 Sankt Margarethen in Burgenland.

Sculpture by Adolf Ryszka in Sankt Margarethen
Sankt Margarethen
1991

Untitled sculpture by Adolf Ryszka. It is located in the open-air stone sculpture workshop in the quarries of Sankt Margarethen. Created in 1991, it was made of sandstone and is 3 metres high.

CZECHY

Outdoor sculpture by Adolf Ryszka in Hořice
Hořice
1990

The work was created during one of the international open-air sculpture workshops in stone, often held in Central Europe since the 1960s. There are many post-environmental realisations on Mount Gotarda. In Hořice, this tradition has been cultivated for a long time. Already at the end of the 19th century, the town became an important centre of Czech sculpture, a sculpture school was established there, and to this day it still houses works by the most prominent Czech sculptors of many generations, including outdoor works. Prague Television devoted a documentary film, 'Metamorfozy kamene', to the creation of Ryszka's work. The sculptor took part in many such international open-air events and large-scale realisations in stone became one of the main currents of his work. In contrast to other forms, in these non-representational works, the artist seeks the energy inherent in the material and brings out the organic analogies of sculptural creation. The compact block of stone in Hořice expresses this to the fullest. In Ryszka's sculptures we can see the inspiration of Henry Moore's work, a similar search for a monumental shape, whose severity is almost always mitigated by the organic streamlining of forms. Here the analogies are the clearest.

CANADA

Adolf Ryszka's sculpture "Between" in Vancouver
. Vancouver
1975

Created in 1975 as part of the International Stone Sculpture Symposium, the sculpture is made of Turkish travertine in the form of two stone blocks separated from each other. The sculptures are 110 and 80 cm high. Speaking about the sculpture, the artist indicated that it was intended to be a piece of his personality left in the park, providing a space of relationship with all who encounter the sculpture.

GERMANS

Sculpture by Adolf Ryszka at Skulpturenpark
Enzesfeld-Lindabrunn
1976
Creators: Adolf Ryszka, Gerhard Class, Hiromi Akiyama

Multifaceted sculpture in the Skulpturenpark open-air sculpture area. Sandstone object, in a hollow approx. 20 x 20 m.

Sculpture called "The Whale" by Adolf Ryszka in Neumünster
Neumünster
1989

The Polish sculptor worked there for six summer weeks in 1989 at the invitation of the national authorities of Schleswig-Holstein. The aim of the symposium (Internationales Bildhauersymposion "Stein am Einfelder See"), was for artists to work together in hard stone, in constant contact with the harsh nature of the area.

Ryszardka's work, which has been invited to numerous sculpture symposia in Germany and other countries, was considered the most interesting among the works of seven sculptors from several countries, and was featured on the cover of the plein air album. The sculpture was placed on the shore itself, partly in the water. The stone, 'slightly raised from the kink marked by a straight line, reinforces itself by stepping with all its weight onto a flat block resting on the shore. The surprising idea [of the arrangement of the stones] to create anxiety in the viewer, who looks at the course of the contours and feels the weight of the material' (Boguslaw Mansfeld, 2007). The sculpture has been calculated to have a reflective effect in the water, and its form also changes as the water level changes. Among Ryszka's numerous realisations at international plein-airs, mainly in Germany, this one stands out for being particularly sensitive to external conditions: depending on the state of the lake water in which it is constantly reflected, it can look like a simple erratic boulder or like a complex structure of abstractly placed blocks. In Ryszka's essentially figurative oeuvre, the stone from Einfelder See is one of the simplest forms and at the same time the least legible when it comes to analogies in nature. At the same time, it is a realisation most fully inscribed in the context of the place.

Adolf Ryszka's sculpture 'Haus der Meditation' at Jockgrim
Jockgrim
1989

Adolf Ryszka's sculpture 'Haus der Meditation' in Jockgrim, created in 1989, a work made of red sandstone. With a height of 250 cm and a width of 150 cm. It is located in the Bürgerpark, together with other sculptures, by artists who participated in the international sculpture symposium in Jockgrim. In its form, Ryszka's sculpture refers to the then newly built town hall. The realisation consists of a large triangular form, made of irregularly worked stone, placed on smaller stone blocks.

Sculpture by Adolf Ryszka on the campus of the Kaiserlautern University of Technology
Kaiserlautern
1982

Sculpture by Adolf Ryszka on the campus of the Technical University of Kaiserlautern made in 1982. It was created as part of an international symposium on stone sculpture held at the university. The realisation is a three-part stone sculpture, made of red sandstone and a rope that connects the stone blocks. It is 250 cm high. The stone is worked roughly and irregularly.

Sculpture by Adolf Ryszka "Silent Stone" on the Schweinstal sculpture trail
Kaiserlautern
1986

Adolf Ryszka's sculpture 'Ruhiger Stein' on the Schweinstal sculpture trail, made in 1986, in red sandstone. The work is 3 metres high. It is located on a several-kilometre-long trail where other sculptures can also be admired. They were created as a result of art projects organised by the state of Rhineland-Palatinate to fund sculptures for public spaces.

Sculpture by Adolf Ryszka "Boundary Stone" ("Grenzstein") in Sankt Wendel
Sankt Wendel
1971

The realisation within the framework of the Internationales Steinbildhauer Symposion is among the many works Adolf Ryszka has made at such international sculpture open-air events. Here, the location of his sculpture on a hill adds to the monumentalism of his sculpture, and it stands out among the works of artists from other countries with its almost monumental character.

The idea for the international stone sculpture symposia was inspired by the Austrian sculptor Karl Prantl, while in Sankt Wendel the "Sculpture Road" was initiated by the local artist Leo Kornbrust, as part of a major European project for an imaginary series of artworks dedicated to Otto Freundlich, the artist murdered by the Nazis, who had proposed a similar pacifist idea - a sculpture road linking people between Moscow and Paris - in the 1930s.

In Sankt Wendel, 57 works by artists from 12 countries were created along a path stretching across the fields over a length of about 25 km, with the last one added in 2010. Ryszka's work was one of the first, set up in the summer of 1971, when 11 artists worked here in plein air. The form of his sculpture, as well as its material, remain in an organic - literally - relationship with the surroundings, as in none of the works by the other symposium artists. The local red sandstone blends colourfully with the red earth (especially when the fields are ploughed here), yet at the same time reveals its more uninspired potential. The shape, squat but bursting with a cleft in the middle, alludes to the gentle and majestic hills of Saarland and the dirt roads that run past. The stone standing in the middle of the road 'speaks of a boundary closed, overcome with difficulty, against nature, on the other side succumbing to destruction. A shocking monument to a mindless prohibition, stopping the wandering man, crossing out his inherent freedom" (Bogusław Mansfeld 2007). The sculpture stands a few dozen metres from the symposium car park, where information boards present the history of the whole project, the names of the sculptors and a map of the foundation.

JAPAN

Sculpture by Adolf Ryszka in Tsuchiya Sekizai Park in Kasama
Kasama
1974

Two granite sculptures by Adolf Ryszka are located in Tsuchiya Sekizai Park in Kasama. They are approximately 2 m high and were made of granite. They were created in 1974.

Monument to Brother Zeno in Gotemba
Gotemba
1973-1979
Creators: Alfred Ryszka, Hajime Togashi

The monument consists of 8 stone slabs lying in pairs, a vertical slab with a portrait of a monk and the inscription "Ningen kore mina onaji" [People are all the same]. It was created on the initiative of the Fuji Foundation in 1973. Ryszka arrived in Japan that year and portrayed the still living Brother Zenon Żebrowski (1898-1982), a highly regarded missionary there - a bronze medallion was then created. The realisation of the monument, however, did not take place until 1979, with Japanese artist Hajime Togashi (1930-1982) as co-author.

"The monument is in the spirit of Japanese art, and speaks through the symbolism of abstract forms: four pairs of low granite blocks resembling sarcophagi, reminiscent of open arms, arranged in pairs one behind the other, ending in a semicircular boulder with a medallion depicting the missionary's face and an inscription in Japanese."
(Irena Grzesiuk-Olszewska)

In a 1980 interview, Ryszka himself interpreted the meaning of the monument as follows: "the low, concentric granite arches - symbolising the outstretched arms". Although the work is distinguished in Ryszka's oeuvre by the eloquence of its symbolic references, at the same time it reveals his typical tendency (here in keeping with Far Eastern culture) to exploit the somehow natural 'speech of stone'. ' The stones, ending in an undercut ridge on both sides, rise towards the gap running between them, only to collapse slightly in front of it with a short incline. A delicately given supposition of an open and benevolent feeling" (Boguslaw Mansfeld, 2007). The authors received the Polish Brother Albert Award.