20th century

sculpture

Including these artists

Auguste Rodin

Constantin Brancusi

Pablo Picasso

Henry moore

Alexander Calder

Louise Nevelson

Claes Oldenburg

Maya Lin

Much of the sculpture produced in the 20th century differs radically in form and content from that made in the past. In some

instances, it explores the same directions as painting, and movements in both media share the same names: cubism,

futurism, constructivism, Dada and surrealism, to mention only a few. Among the dominating influences on European sculptors

early in the 20th century were ancient art and African and Oceanian sculpture. Much of the latter was displayed in natural

history museums in France and Germany.

Balzac (1892-97) by Auguste René Rodin is an expressive portrait of the French writer Honoré de Balzac. It is made of bronze and stands approximately 2.95 m (8 ft 10 in). Although Rodin was capable of creating the most lifelike, naturalistic figures, he deliberately chose to portray Balzac in a rough and slightly distorted style in order to convey the emotional state of the writer.

The Thinker bronze

Rodin, (François) Auguste René (1840-1917), French sculptor, who imbued his work with great psychological force, which was expressed largely through texture and modeling. He is regarded as the foremost sculptor of the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Constantin Brancusi

A Romanian sculptor who trained initially as a carpenter and stone mason. He settled in Paris in 1904 where his early influences included African as well as oriental art. Although Rodin was another early influence, Brancusi decided he wished to make much simpler work and began an evolutionary search for pure form.

The prolific works of Spanish painter and sculptor Pablo Picasso greatly influenced the path of 20th-century art. He settled in Paris in 1904 and began producing work in the postimpressionist style. He later developed many other styles and produced over 20,000 works. He is considered the greatest artist of the 20th century.

Pablo Picasso

Bulls Head Bird in Space

Pablo picasso

In creating works like this large bronze sculpture, Three Piece Reclining Figure No. 2: Bridge Prop (1963), British artist Henry Moore drew inspiration from the energy and vitality that he found in the art of many ancient cultures. The reclining female form is a recurring theme in Moore’s sculpture.

Henry moore

Moore, Henry (1898-1986), British sculptor known for his large, semiabstract sculptures of the human figure. He is considered the most prominent British sculptor of the 20th century, and his work had a strong influence on contemporary figural sculpture.

Recumbent Figure, 1938

Alexander calder

Although he worked in a variety of styles, American sculptor Alexander Calder is best known for his mobiles, abstract sculptures delicately suspended and balanced in an open space. One of the few abstract artists to gain widespread public acceptance, Calder fascinated viewers with the vitality and humor of his works. His last major work, a huge mobile in the central court of the East Wing of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., was completed in 1978, two years after his death.

Horizontal Yellow (1972) painted metal, metal rods, and wire. This delicately balanced work is an example of Calder’s abstract sculptures called mobiles, which are set in motion by air currents. Calder described these works as "four-dimensional drawings," because through movement, they go beyond the three dimensions of space and into the fourth dimension, time.

La Grande vetesse

Grand Rapids, Michigan

Louise Nevelson

White Vertical Water, 1972. Painted wood, 26 sections, 216 x 108 inches overall. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

Louise Nevelson’s mature work emerged in the mid-1950s, when she began to assemble found wooden objects into constructions, most of which she painted uniformly black. In so doing she aligned herself with many contemporary artists who embraced found objects to create what has become known as Junk art, an aesthetic that stems from Pablo Picasso’s invention, early in this century, of a sculpture of accumulation. Nevelson’s large-scale wall constructions reflect her interest in pre-Columbian stelae as well. The scale and formal purity of the all-black and all-white sculptures, in which the frontal relief surface and uniform coloration focus the viewer on the play of light and shadow, also suggest the solemnity and grandeur of altar paintings.

                                                                                                                                  

               

Artist Claes Oldenburg is well known for fashioning monumental sculptures based on mundane, everyday objects.

Typewriter Eraser, Scale X, by Oldenburg and his wife, Coosje van Bruggen, was inspired by an imagefrom his youth.

Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van BruggenSpoonbridge and Cherry, 1985-1988aluminum, stainless steel, paint354 x 618 x 162 in.

ClayesOldenburg

Claes Oldenburg en Coosje van BruggenFlying Pins

The Vietnam Veteran's Memorial in Washington D.C., designed by Maya Lin. who

also designed the Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, Alabama.

Maya Lin

Eighth grade20th century sculpture

Presented by

Julie SanfordEagle Crest Academy

Pictures and text from Encarta and Google image search.