Piotr Latoska (1911-2004), "Brzemienna," circa 1960.

plaster, patinated, height 66 cm.
Condition: dr. patina losses.
Sculpture from the collection of the artist's family.

Sculptor born in Ruda Śląska, student of the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków. As a young man, he served a three-year apprenticeship with master locksmith Antoni Sieroń and took a job as a locksmith in the early 1930s. He became interested in sculpture in 1938, at first his sculpting material was clay, and with time he began to sculpt in coal. In the 1940s, he began classes at the School of Sculpture in Coal run in Rydułtowy by Ludwik Konarzewski. Encouraged by Reinhold Domin, who ran a sculpture school in Ruda Śląska, and having received a scholarship from the Miners' Trade Union in 1949, he enrolled in the Sculpture Department of the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow under Xawery Dunikowski. He graduated in 1955 and in 1953 took part in the construction of the Monument to the Uprising on Mount St. Anne, designed by Dunikowski. After graduation, he took a job at the mine (until 1971) and continued his artistic work. He was an instructor in the sculpture section of art centers. His sculptures in coal depicted the world he knew - working people, miners, steelworkers. He was the author of, among others, the sculptures "Sitting" and "Archer" in the Gallery of Silesian Sculpture in the Silesian Park in Chorzow, unfortunately not preserved. He made a plaster bust of Jerzy Ziętek, President Gottwald. Around 1978 he became interested in bas-relief, the favorite subject of his works made in copper were historical scenes from the time of the Silesian uprisings and the Nazi occupation, motifs from the world of music, religious scenes.
(Lit.: "Piotr Latoska. Exhibition on the 90th Anniversary of the Artist's Birthday," compiled by. editorial Ewa Brol, exhibition catalog published through the efforts of the City Hall of Ruda Śląska, Ruda Śląska 2001).