The present chapter shall present the works available in public spaces in the understanding of the English term street art. We have presented examples of street furniture such as benches and fountains which have not only functional roles but also aesthetic ones.  We shall also present monuments which decorate city parks and greens.

The monument to Chopin, located in the Łazienki Park, though with tragic history, is the most impressive Art Nouveau masterpiece presented in the album. It was reconstructed in 1958 according to the design by Wacław Szymanowski. It is probably the world’s largest Art Nouveau monument. A selection of Polish Art Nouveau monuments is exemplified in a number of other monuments from Warsaw parks. Selected examples are fountain decorations from cities such as Opole, Toruń, Bydgoszcz, and Wrocław. There are figures of men, women, children, and animals including a crane in a Bydgoszcz garden which unfortunately has been ‘beautified’ too much recently. Cracow’s Chimera is an interesting example of a sculpture in public space. It was designed by Henryk Kunzek, a sculptor and a physician. Chimera was a reward for the Czapski Palace granted in 1908 by the Society of Beautifying the City of Cracow and the Garden Society for the winning of the floral decoration competition.

Tombstones from the last resting places are particular types of sculptures.  We have selected several sculptures from a wide range of objects of this type mainly from the Powązki Cemetery which is the burying place of many Polish elite representatives. The list was supplemented with two examples from Jewish cemeteries, i.e. the Rappaport family buried in the Łódź cemetery and the marble tombstone, decorated with roses, of Mieczysław Orgelbrand’s daughter  who died prematurely and whose grave is in the Warsaw cemetery. Mieczysław rendered great service to Polish culture and he was the son of of Samuel, creator of Encyclopaedia.

The cemetery symbolism reminded of the transience of human life. Angles of death carrying peace to both the dead and the living were preferred iconographic motifs. There is one such example presented in the album. Other representations include crying women personifying Hope and Mourning and the end of human life. The tombstone of the writer, Wacław Szymanowski, with his likeness, is a classic example realised by his son.

Art Nouveau forms were also present in designs of railings and fences both around cemeteries and those surrounding home gardens marking the area of the real estate. The most frequently used motifs were geometrised Viennese Secession ornaments as well as representations of plants. There has not been enough place, however, for these decorations in the present album. They are available in our photo bank at www.pictures-bank.eu.