Art - Huddersfield, UK
Posted by: 
dtrebilc
N 53° 38.658 W 001° 46.897
30U E 580542 N 5944637
An allegorical figure representing Art is located on the right and on top of the front steps to the Huddersfield Public Library and Art Gallery. It is the rightmost of a pair of sculptures representing Literature and Art.
Waymark Code: WMQTVB
Location: Yorkshire, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 03/28/2016
Views: 1
This building opened in 1940 to replace an earlier library that was no longer large enough.
The building and the sculpture was designed by architect E. H.
Ashburner (1896-1992). According to this
website
about the architecture of buildings in Huddersfield ...
"A rather more light-hearted approach to didactic architectural decoration was taken by E. H.
Ashburner (1896-1992), the architect of Huddersield’s 1930s Art Gallery and Library. In 1946
Ashburner was to write:
I always feel strongly that in a library, perhaps more than in most buildings, it is incumbent
of the architect to do his utmost to beautify his building by making it a permanent record
of the best examples of contemporary art, sculpture and other arts or crafts which are
available. If artists of sufficient note are available locally, then so much the better – a
further source of civic pride.4
Flanking the steps are Youth Awaiting Inspiration (1939), a boy symbolising literature and a girl,
art by sculptor, James Woodford (1893-1976)."
The statue is over 6 feet high and shows a seated figure of a young girl wearing a skirt and diaphanous top.