gateways to art chapter 2.9
TRANSCRIPT
Chapter 2.9
Sculpture
PART 2MEDIA AND PROCESSES
Copyright © 2011 Thames & Hudson
PART 2MEDIA AND PROCESSES
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
PART 2MEDIA AND PROCESSES
Chapter 2.9 Sculpture
Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts, Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larmann, M. Kathryn Shields
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
PART 2MEDIA AND PROCESSES
Chapter 2.9 Sculpture
Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts, Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larmann, M. Kathryn Shields
Methods of Sculpture
Subtractive
Additive
Chapter 2.9 Sculpture
PART 2MEDIA AND PROCESSES
Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts, Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larmann, M. Kathryn Shields
Click the image above to launch the video
Video: Additive Sculpture
Chapter 2.9 Sculpture
PART 2MEDIA AND PROCESSES
Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts, Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larmann, M. Kathryn Shields
Click the image above to launch the video
Video: Subtractive Sculpture
PART 2MEDIA AND PROCESSES
Chapter 2.9 Sculpture
Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts, Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larmann, M. Kathryn Shields
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
PART 2MEDIA AND PROCESSES
Chapter 2.9 Sculpture
Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts, Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larmann, M. Kathryn Shields
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
PART 2MEDIA AND PROCESSES
Chapter 2.9 Sculpture
Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts, Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larmann, M. Kathryn Shields
Casting
The Additive method
2.152 Riace Warrior A, c. 450 BCE. Bronze, 6’6” high. National Museum, Reggio Calabria, Italy
PART 2MEDIA AND PROCESSES
Chapter 2.9 Sculpture
Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts, Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larmann, M. Kathryn Shields
2.153 Seven steps in the lost-wax casting process
PART 2MEDIA AND PROCESSES
Chapter 2.9 Sculpture
Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts, Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larmann, M. Kathryn Shields
Earthworks
The surface of the Earth itself is used as the material
Chapter 2.9 Sculpture
PART 2MEDIA AND PROCESSES
Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts, Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larmann, M. Kathryn Shields
Click the image above to launch the video
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
PART 2MEDIA AND PROCESSES
Chapter 2.9 Sculpture
Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts, Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larmann, M. Kathryn Shields
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”
PART 2MEDIA AND PROCESSES
Chapter 2.9 Sculpture
Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts, Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larmann, M. Kathryn Shields
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
PART 2MEDIA AND PROCESSES
Chapter 2.9 Sculpture
Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts, Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larmann, M. Kathryn Shields
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
PART 2MEDIA AND PROCESSES
Chapter 2.9 Sculpture
Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts, Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larmann, M. Kathryn Shields
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
PART 2MEDIA AND PROCESSES
Chapter 2.9 Sculpture
Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts, Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larmann, M. Kathryn Shields
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
PART 2MEDIA AND PROCESSES
Chapter 2.9 Sculpture
Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts, Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larmann, M. Kathryn Shields
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
PART 2MEDIA AND PROCESSES
Chapter 2.9 Sculpture
Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts, Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larmann, M. Kathryn Shields
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
PART 2MEDIA AND PROCESSES
Chapter 2.9 Sculpture
Perspectives on Art:
Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts, Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larmann, M. Kathryn Shields
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