Joseph Turkaly - The Life of a Sculptor With Tom Turkaly and Frank Prpic Croatian Heritage Museum 34900 Lake Shore Blvd, Eastlake, Ohio September 28, 2025
The Croatian Heritage Museum in Eastlake, Ohio (a suburb of Cleveland) was the setting for a presentation by the two creators of the book, Joseph Turkaly - The Life of a Sculptor.
To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the birth of sculptor Joseph Turkaly, the Turkaly Family Art Trust published a retrospective monography in 2024. This 9 X 12 coffee table book contains 236 pages of his works, sketches, and candid photos, many from his archives. The forward of the book is composed by Dr. Henry Adams, a noted arts scholar and curator. Joseph's biography is written by his son Thomas Turkaly. The principal photography and layout is by Frank Prpic.
It follows Joseph's life journey from a humble Croatian village to studying in Europe's leading universities. He then immigrated to the United States to work as Ivan Mestrovic's assistant at Notre Dame, where he took over his position upon Mestrovic's death. He later settled in Cleveland, OH to raise a family and continue teaching. During this time he established a reputation and received numerous commissions from basilicas, churches, public installations, as well as for private and corporate collections.
In this video, Tom Turkaly tells how his father had an early interest in talent for art. He explained the inspiration for the popular Immigrant Mother statue and both he and Frank Prpic told which of the many Turkaly works is their favorite. Watch.
Here are some other images from the Joseph Turkaly book presentation.
Frank Prpic and Tom Turkaly
Signing copies of the book
Some smaller models and sketches of Joseph Turkaly's works were on display.
Tom Turkaly with a sketch of 'Creation'
Sketch of 'Creation'
Immigrant Mother Statue in the Croatian Heritage Library
Croatian hero Nikola Subic Zrinski bust
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