An acclaimed artist who created dozens of sculptures in a post-war Scottish new city says he’s “very upset” that the council has misplaced a few of his work.
David Harding, 86, stated three poetry slabs had been dug up from the pavement in Glenrothes, Fife.
They went lacking from the location of an outdated purchasing centre, which has been fenced off because it awaits demolition.
Fife Council stated their disappearance was “actually disappointing” and that it didn’t know of their whereabouts.
Mr Harding was the city artist in Glenrothes for 10 years, beginning in 1968.
The lacking items had been within the precinct of the previous Glenwood purchasing centre. They featured poetry by Douglas Younger, Hugh Macdiarmid and Sydney Goodsir Smith.
Talking from his dwelling in Glasgow, Mr Harding instructed BBC Scotland that the works had been one a part of his legacy.
“I’ve about 30 or 40 items of artwork work in Glenrothes and I believed they’d be there without end. I used to be doing it for posterity,” he stated.
“I’m very pleased with my work and I get large satisfaction once I stroll round Glenrothes and see them.
“So once I heard three poetry slabs had disappeared I used to be very unhappy.”
He had created 10 poetry slabs at bus stops and cellphone bins within the city, however he believes there’s now just one left.
“I feel it speaks volumes concerning the literacy of Glenrothes that they need to purchase items of poetry,” he stated.
Mr Harding stated that a couple of years in the past some workers in Fife Council’s parks and panorama division had began to interrupt up his compositions.
“They put items right here and there, regardless of the actual fact I had designed them very particularly for a particular place,” he stated.
“They determined to separate them up. They took them from the neighbourhoods and put them on roundabouts and most important roads.
“I feel the council has a little bit of a cavalier angle and would not truly admire the complete integrity of every work.”
Mr Harding was introduced up in in Leith and studied on the Edinburgh School of Artwork.
He labored as a trainer in Nigeria earlier than returning to Scotland on the age of 30, the place he was a self employed artist.
He then answered a newspaper advert for the put up of city artist with the Glenrothes Improvement Company, as the brand new city was taking form within the east of Scotland.
The job concerned making a sequence of public artwork installations all through Glenrothes, utilizing the identical constructing supplies that had been used to create native housing.
Two of the works he created are actually listed – the Henge, a spiral of forged concrete slabs in Beaufort Drive; and a mural on an underpass known as Business, which he stated was impressed by the the patterns he had seen on mud huts in Africa.
His different items included Heritage, rows of concrete embossed columns, and Dugs Cemetery.
Mr Harding went on to move a division on the Glasgow College of Artwork. He additionally has public artwork in Switzerland and Greece.
Andrew Demetrius, who’s writing a PhD on Mr Harding, stated the council needs to be held accountable for the loss.
He stated: “The post-Second World Struggle new cities had been repetitive as they had been constructed on a finances.
“Folks thought they had been miserable.
“They needed one thing visually stimulating to distinguish the streets, which all regarded the identical.”
He stated the function of making artwork in Glenrothes had been tailored for Mr Harding.
“David did one thing very radical working with the very modest supplies of concrete and brick,” he stated.
“His work is embedded within the atmosphere. They converse to one another.
“There’s a massive part of the neighborhood who would not go into an artwork gallery or museum, so he introduced the artwork to them.”
Mr Demetrius stated the poetry slabs had been amusing, provocative and thought-provoking.
“I’ve spoken to many individuals within the city who say they love them.
“This can be very unhappy and disappointing that the poetry slabs have gone lacking.”
Visible arts journalist Jan Persistence stated she was “nearly speechless” that that they had been misplaced.
She stated: “He is likely one of the most influential artists within the UK. His work as city artist in Glenrothes is the stuff of legend.
“It is careless of Fife Council, which has all the time had a little bit of a cavalier angle in direction of outdated stuff created within the 60s and 70s.”
Andy MacLellan, Fife Council’s neighborhood initiatives group supervisor, stated he was upset that three paving stones had been faraway from the location.
“These paving stones had been taken from the realm inside the herras fencing which is across the perimeter of the location,” he stated
“It is actually disappointing that they’re lacking and we hope somebody will come ahead to substantiate they’re in secure fingers for re-laying as a part of the grasp plan for the realm.”
