Chapter 9

Sculpture

Introduction

• What is sculpture?• Why is sculpture important to us?• Why does sculpture create an

emotion in humans?• Why have we felt the need to

create sculptures and monumental sculptures throughout our history?

Sculpture

Sculpture - The art of carving, casting, modeling, or assembling materials into three-dimensional figures or forms

Subtractive and Additive Types of Sculpture

Subtractive Process - Carving, unwanted materials are removed.

Additive Process - Modeling, Casting, Construction

Carving

• Carving - removing portions of a block of material to create a form.

• Can use stone, wood, ivory, chocolate…

Bernini: The Blessed Ludovica Albertoni 1674

Giuseppe Penone: Propagation 1970

Modeling

Modeling - using a pliable material, such as clay or wax, the artist shapes the material into a 3D form.

• Can be done by hand or tools.

Casting

Casting - liquid metal material is poured into a mold to create a form.

Mold - the form into which the material is poured and imparts its shape.

• Any material that hardens can be used for casting.

• One of the oldest and most common is Bronze.

George Segal: The Holocaust 1982

Joseph Havel: Drape 1999

Rachel Whiteread: Stairs 1991

Construction

Constructed sculpture - forms are built from materials such as wood, paper, string, sheet metal, and wire.

Types of Materials

• Stone• Wood• Clay• Metal

Stone

• Stone is extremely hard• It is also very durable• Appropriate for monuments and

statues• Stone tools include the chisel and

mallet• Artists also use contemporary

power tools

Reena Spauldings: Marble Surfboards 2000

Wood

• Wood can be carved, scraped, drilled, polished, molded and bent.

• Different types of woods vary in how hard they are.

• Wood appeals to sculpture artists, because of its grain, color, and workability.

• Wood is easier to carve than stone.• Tensile strength - the inherent

strength of a material.

Isaac Resnikoff : Jersey Barrier 1999

Clay

• Clay is more pliable than stone or wood– Clay is not very strong. – Nor is is permanent.

• Armature - an inner skeleton normally made of metal, used to help give clay additional strength.

David Zink Yi : Architeuthis 2010

Metal

• Metals can be cast, extruded, forged, stamped, drilled, filed, and burnished.

• Cast bronze sculptures• Direct-metal sculptures -

Assembling sculpture by welding, riveting, and soldering.

• Patinas - the colors created on bronze due to oxidation.

Figure 9.12, p.185: RICHARD SERRA. Installation view, Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain.

Modern and ContemporaryMaterials and Methods

Throughout history sculptors have searched for new forms of expression.

• Constructed sculpture• Assemblage• Readymades• Mixed media• Kinetic sculpture• Light sculpture• Land art

Figure 9.14, p.186: CLAES OLDENBURG. Soft Toilet (1966). Vinyl filled with kapok painted with Liquitex, and wood. 57 1⁄16” x 27 5⁄8” x 28 1⁄16”.

Assemblage

• A form of constructed sculpture• Pre-existing or found objects take

on a new form as artwork• Novel combinations that take on a

new life and meaning• One of the best-known examples is

Picasso’s Bull’s Head

Pablo Picasso: Bull’s Head 1942

Readymades

• Found objects can be elevated to works of art on pedestals, such as Duchamp’s urinal, turned upside down.

• This is a 20th-century artistic trend• No assembly is needed for this

artform

Marcel Duchamp: Fountain 1917

Mixed Media

Mixed Media - Use materials and found objects that are not normally elements of a work of art.

• Artists, such as Rauschenberg (see Ch. 20), may attach other materials to their canvases.

• What might be some the materials you could use in a Mixed Media sculpture?

Robert Rauschenberg: Monogram 1955

Kinetic Sculpture

Kinetic sculpture - Sculptures that move, art + action. Example: the mobile.

Forms of movement might include: • Wind• Magnetic fields• Jets of water• Electric motors• The intensity of light• Human manipulations

Jonathon Schipper: The Slow Inevitable Death of American Muscle 1999

Light Sculpture

• Light and its reflections have always been an important elements in sculpture (and art!)

• However, “light sculpture” is a 20th-century artform

• What are the physical and psychological effects of color and the creation of illusion?

Alfredo Jaar: The Geometry of Consciousness 1999

Other Materials

Sculpture today uses not only traditional materials, but also materials that have never been used before.

Example: beeswax, microcrystalline wax, chocolate, styrofoam, etc…

Figure 9.22, p.191: JANINE ANTONI. Chocolate Gnaw (1992). Chocolate (600 lb before biting), gnawed by the artist. 24” x 24” x 24” (61 cm x 61 cm x 61 cm).

Urs Fischer: Untitled 2011

Matthew Barney: Untitled 2001