Valentin Ivanovich Znoba (1929–2006)
Ukrainian sculptor, born in Sophievka, in the Dnepropetrovsk region. He studied at the Ukraine Institute of Fine Arts from 1947 to 1953, and later emerged as one of the country’s leading sculptors, as well as a member of the Ukrainian parliament during the period of Soviet rule. Among his many public commissions are several monuments in Kyiv, including statues of the Soviet writer Nikolai Ostrovsky (1966), and of Vladimir Lenin in October Square (1977, dismantled 1991). His first work in Scotland was the eight-metre-high Football Supporters monument in Haddington, East Lothian, which was stolen in 1994, but returned the following year, when Znoba arrived in Scotland for his Edinburgh International Festival exhibition at Morningside Church. Other works by Znoba in Scotland include a memorial to the pioneer environmentalist John Muir in Dunbar (1997), and a bronze statue of William Wallace, inspired by the film Braveheart, in the collection of Abertay University, Dundee (1996).
Sources: (Glasgow) Herald; Philatelia.net.
Ray McKenzie 2018
Adam Zyw (1948–2003)
Architect, sculptor and teacher, born in Dean Village, Edinburgh, the son of the Polish émigré painter Aleksander Zyw, and the brother of Michael Zyw, also an artist. After graduating from the Architectural Association School of Architecture, London, in 1974, he undertook postgraduate studies in landscape architecture at the University of Edinburgh, later going on to work for the Royal Fine Art Commission. He taught at the Mackintosh School of Architecture, Glasgow, and at the universities of Edinburgh and Aberdeen. In addition to his work as an architect and sculptor (mostly in wood), he was also an award-winning poet and restaurateur.
Sources: McEwan, P.J.M., The Dictionary of Scottish Art and Architecture, Ballater, Aberdeenshire, 2004; Scotsman, 15 August 2003.
Ray McKenzie 2018