Liberec Region Travel Catalogue

Petr Skála recalled, "The statue was originally to look quite different, as indeed all sorts of things, than what we took to the commission. It was such a stylized shape of running water very roughly resembling a girl’s figure, but the commission requested the statue to have a girl’s head with a real face and they wanted it to be a figural sculpture. They also wanted it to be placed on a natural rock, but somehow I defended the concept."

Liberec native, Melanie Skálová, studied jewellery in Jablonec nad Nisou and subsequently at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague under Josef Soukup (1968-1974). Petr Skála comes from Ratíškovice near Hodonín and after studying at the Secondary School of Applied Arts (Střední uměleckoprůmyslová škola) in Žižkov in Prague, he graduated from the Academy of Arts, his major was applied sculpture. 

Spouses Melanie and Peter Skála completed six more sculptures in Liberec. The only one that has been preserved, however, is the sculpture of boys in front of the elementary school in Kaplického Street in Doubí. Other statues can be seen in places such as the zoo in Ústí nad Labem, or at the Holý Vrch housing estate in Česká Lípa. Melanie and Peter Skála’s current work is tower clock restorations.

Sculptor: Melanie and Petr Skálovi
Date of birth: Melanie 27 July 1949, Petr 23 December 1946
Year: 1977
Material: sandstone
Size: 200 × 145 cm
Location: In front of high-rise building No. 557-XV in Aloisina výšina Street