Gateways To Art Chapter 2.9

Chapter 2.9

Sculpture

PART 2MEDIA AND PROCESSES

Copyright © 2011 Thames & Hudson


Chapter 2.9 Sculpture

Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts, Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larmann, M. Kathryn Shields

Approaches to Three Dimensions in Sculpture

Sculpture made to be seen from many sides is known as freestanding, or in-the-round

Many freestanding sculptures are made so that we can move around them

Relief is a type of sculpture specifically designed for viewing from one side

The image in a relief either protrudes from or is sunk into a surface

It can have very little depth (bas-relief) or a great deal (high relief)

2.142 Sculpture of the Lady Sennuwy, 1971–1926 BCE. Granite, 67 x 45¾ x 18½”. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Harvard University–Boston Museum of Fine Arts Expedition

2.143a, 2.143b Giambologna, Rape of a Sabine, 1583. Marble, 13’6” high. Loggia dei Lanzi, Piazza della Signoria, Florence, Italy




Bas-Relief and High Relief

2.144 Dying Lioness, limestone relief from the North Palace of Ashurbanipal, Nineveh, Assyrian period, c. 650 BCE. British Museum, London, England

2.145 Susan Durant, Memorial to King Leopold of the Belgians, 1867, in Christ Church, Esher, England




Methods of Sculpture

Subtractive

Additive




Click the image above to launch the video

Video: Additive Sculpture





Video: Subtractive Sculpture




Carving

The Subtractive method

2.146a Colossal Head #10, Olmec. Basalt. San Lorenzo, Veracruz, Mexico

2.146b Colossal Head #10, Olmec. Basalt. San Lorenzo, Veracruz, Mexico

2.147 Michelangelo, Prisoner, known as the Awakening Slave, 1519–20. Marble, 8’9⅛” high. Accademia, Florence, Italy

2.148 Michelangelo, Creation of the Sun and the Moon, 1508–10, detail from the Sistine Chapel ceiling, Vatican City

2.149 Michelangelo, Tomb of Julius II, detail of Moses, 1513–16. Marble, 7’8½” high. San Pietro in Vincoli, Rome, Italy

2.150 Figure of the war god Ku-ka’ili-moku, Hawaii, 18th or 19th century. Wood, 8’11” high. British Museum, London, England




Modeling

The Additive method

2.151 Sarcophagus from Cerveteri, c. 520 BCE. Painted terracotta, 3’9½” x 6’7”. Museo Nazionale di Villa Giulia, Rome, Italy




Casting

The Additive method

2.152 Riace Warrior A, c. 450 BCE. Bronze, 6’6” high. National Museum, Reggio Calabria, Italy




2.153 Seven steps in the lost-wax casting process




Earthworks

The surface of the Earth itself is used as the material





Video: Land Art

2.154 Great Serpent Mound, c. 800 BCE–100 CE, 1330 x 3’, Locust Grove, Adams County, Ohio

2.155 Robert Smithson, Spiral Jetty, 1969–70. Black rock, salt crystals, and earth, 160’ diameter, coil length 1500 x 15’. Great Salt Lake, Utah




Construction

Uses a variety of methods to create and put together different components

2.156 Naum Gabo, Constructed Head No. 2, 1916. Cor-ten steel, 69 × 52¾ × 48¼”. Tate, London, England

2.157 Damien Hirst, The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, 1991. Glass, steel, silicon, formaldehyde solution, and shark, 7’1½” x 17’9⅜” x 5’10⅞”




Readymades

Artists rebelled against the historical notion that artworks are appreciated for the effort and skill that goes into making them

2.158 Pablo Picasso, Bull’s Head, 1942. Assemblage of bicycle seat and handlebars, 13¼ x 17⅛ x 7½”. Musée Picasso, Paris, France

2.159 Marcel Duchamp, Fountain, 1917. Replica (original lost). Porcelain urinal, 12 x 15 x 18”. Philadelphia Museum of Art, Louise and Walter Arensberg Collection




Installations

Installation art involves the construction of a space or the assembly of objects to create an environment

2.164 Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, The Man Who Flew into Space from His Apartment, 1985–8. Wood, board construction, furniture, found printed ephemera, and household objects, dimensions variable




Light and Kinetic Sculpture

Sculptors who work with movement and light express their ideas in ways that would not have been possible just a century or two before

These moving and lighted sculptural works, like those of the Constructivists, rely on mechanical engineering as well as the creative input of the artist

2.160 László Moholy-Nagy, Light Prop for an Electric Stage, 1929–30. Exhibition replica, constructed 2006, through the courtesy of Hattula Moholy-Nagy. Metal, plastics, glass, paint, and wood, with electric motor, 59½ x 27⅝ x 27⅝”. Harvard Art Museums, Busch-Reisinger Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts




László Moholy-Nagy, Light Prop for an Electric Stage

Initially created as a stage lighting device, Light Prop eventually became the main character in a film, also by Moholy-Nagy

The work has a motor that moves a series of perforated discs so that they cross in front of the lighting unit

This creates a constantly changing sculptural object,and the changes in lighting influence the surrounding environment

2.161 Olafur Eliasson, Remagine, 2002. Spotlights, tripods, or wall mounts, control unit, dimensions variable. Installation at Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Germany, 2004




Olafur Eliasson, Remagine

The illusion of depth is created by the projection of light onto the walls of the gallery

The work challenges our perceptions of two-dimensional and three-dimensional art by using the space of the gallery and the illusion created on its flat walls

2.162 George Rickey, Breaking Column, 1986 (completed by the artist’s estate, 2009). Stainless steel, 9’11⅜” x 5½”. Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, Hawaii




George Rickey, Breaking Column

The components of Rickey’s sculpture are carefully balanced so that they can pivot in a varietyof directions and provide an infinite number of constantly changing views

Breaking Column is moved by the slightest current of air; it also has a motor, and moves even when there is no wind

2.163a Antony Gormley

2.163b Antony Gormley, Asian Field, 2003. 210,000 hand-sized clay elements, installation view, warehouse of former ShanghaiNo. 10 Steelworks, China



Perspectives on Art:


Antony GormleyAsian Field

Traveling to communities around the world, Gormleyhanded out fist-sized balls of clay and instructed participants to form them into an image of their own bodies, working as quickly as possible

The figures in Gormley’s work are not portraits, theyare corpographs: a three-dimensional equivalent ofa photograph but which is left as a negative, as a void. “They are simply still objects in a moving world”

Gormley works in the most direct way to build a bridge between art and life

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Gateways To Art Chapter 2.9

Art & Photos