Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

This book tells the story of public art in I reland from the High Croses of the Celtic period to the scul pture trails of today. It is also intended to serve as a ref erence book for those engaged in commissioning and making pu blic art today. '

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

A good overview of Irish public sculpture is provided in this modest volume, ranging from prehistoric beginnings through the present. Much of the text, some 150 pages, is devoted to the figurative (called here the "classical") tradition between the 18th and early 20th centuries. Contemporary work surveyed is largely an afterthought and appears derivative of sited and installed work elsewhere. This, and the fact that almost all the artists are either Irish or English, leads one to perhaps accurately conclude that the Irish tradition of civic monuments is more conservatively provincial than in other Western cultures. There is a (too brief) preface and early chapters that usefully outline some of the major characteristics and origins of public sculpture in Ireland and elsewhere. The book is at its best when it intelligently cites literary and other historical sources pertaining to the quality and language of civic monuments in general. General readers; graduates; faculty; professionals. R. J. Onorato University of Rhode Island