29 June
LIBRARY
The uknown
political prisoner [exhibition catalogue]
London: Tate
Gallery, [1953]
The Berlin wall was
built in 1961 and destroyed in 1989. In
contrast, the memorial which was to be sited in West Berlin
overlooking the Soviet Zone was never made. Reg Butler won the
international sculpture competition to make a memorial for the
unknown political prisoner. He was the Gregory Fellow in
Sculpture
at the University of Leeds at the time. The maquette that he
entered
for the competition was shown at the exhibition of the winning
entries at the Tate Gallery in London in 1953 and at the Venice
Biennale the following year. The expressed aim of the competition
was to promote interest in contemporary sculpture and the
overwhelming response (3,500 applications) was taken as an
indication
of how sculpture could cross national and political boundaries.
