Chapter 5: Sculpture
Auguste Rodin
"Danaide" 1885. Marble. Paris. Danaide is from a Greek myth in which the fifty daughters of Danaos were ordered to kill their fifty husbands, sons of Argos, on their wedding night. The gods punished them by forcing them to fill bottomless barrels with water. This Danaide is shown exhausted and dispirited by the impossibility of her task -Rodin, one of the greatest sculptors of the human body, wrote that: "Instead of imagining the different parts of the body as surfaces more or less flat, I represented them as projections of interior volumes. I forced myself to express in each swelling of the torso or of the limbs the efflorescence of a muscle or a bone which lay beneath the skin. And so the truth of my figures, instead of being merely superficial, seems to blossom fort from within to the outside, like life itself.
Ernest Trova
"Falling Man, (Wheel Man) 1965. Trova's sculpture portrays man as part of a machine, implying that in the machine age humans are becoming less and less human. Consider the unidealized human figure in comparison with the Greek ideal. Flaccid, faceless, and sexless, this anonymous robot has "grown" spoked wheels instead of arms. Attached below the hips, these mechanisms produce a sense of eerie instability. (subject matter is social protest against technology)
Alexander Calder
"Five Swords" 1976. Sheet metal, bolts, paint. Calder's sculpture implies by its form that the swords have been turned into plowshares, which may be seen as a monument to the end of the Vietnam War, one of America's longest wars. -Five Swords is a gigantic structure, not in marble, but in steel panels painted a brilliant color. Calder's work needs to have space around it, which is one reason it is located in a huge, parklike setting. We are arrested by the sensations of this piece, and its hugeness when we are near it is an important part of the sense. Calder's ideas about size are naturally influenced by his own practice as a sculptor of monumental works, some of which dominate huge public spaces in major cities. Unfortunately, photographs in this Book can only suggests the differences in size, but if you spend time with sculpture in its own setting, consider how much the size of the work affects your capacity to participate with it.
Contemporary Sculpture What are the different types of sculptures?
-Developments in sculpture are emerging and changing so rapidly that no attempt can be made here even to begin to classify them adequately. Adding to the traditional species of sculpture (relief sculpture and sculpture in the round) at least five new species have taken hold: 1.) Space 2.) Protest against technology 3.) Accommodation with technology 4.) Machine 5.) Earth sculpture -In much contemporary (modern) sculpture, there is only one fairly pervasive (universal) characteristic: truth to materials, both in respecting materials and defying them. For example: For some sculptors, one purpose was to reveal the "stoneness" of the stone, or the "goodness" of the wood. But some scupltors, including Michelangelo and Rodin, are committed to defying the limits of say marble when depicting the human figure. Some sculptors use nontraditional materials to explore the questions of space, volume, and density.
Henry Moore's quote on sculptures.
-Henry Moore is one of the most influential sculptors of the twentieth century (1901-2000) -Henry Moore said that the sculpture "gets the solid shape, as it were, inside his head- he thinks of it, whatever its size, as if he were holding It completely enclosed in the hollow of his hand." Moore continues: The sculptor "Mentally visualizes a complex form all round itself; he knows while he looks at one side what the other side is like he identifies himself with its center of gravity, its mass, its weight; he realizes its volume, as the space that the shape displaces in the air." "Sculpture is more affected by actual size considerations that painting. A painting is isolated by a Frame from it's surroundings (unlesss it serves just a decorative purpose) and so retains more easily its own imaginary scale." Henry Moore makes the further claim that the actual physical size of sculpture has an emotional meaning. "We relate everything to our own size, and our emotional response to size is controlled by the fact that men on the average are between 5 and 6 feet high." -In a sense, Moore tells us that sculpture is perceptible not only by sight, as with painting, but by our either real or imagines sense of touch.
Truth to Materials
-In the flamboyant eighteenth-century "Baroque" and in some of the "Romanticism" of the later nineteenth century, respect for materials tended to be ignored. Karl Knappe referred to a "crisis" in the early twentieth century that "concerns.... the artistic media": "An image cannot be created without regard for the laws of nature, and each kind of material has natural laws of its own. Every block of stone, every piece of wood is subject to its own rules. Every medium has, so to speak, its own tempo; the tempo of a pencil or a piece of charcoal is quite different from the tempo of a woodcut. The habit of mind which creates, for instance, a pen drawing cannot simply be applied mechanically to the making of a woodcut; to do this would be to deny the validity of the spiritual as well as the technical tempo."
Sensory Interconnections
-It is an oversimplification to distinguish the various arts on the basis of which sense organ is activated (for example: to claim that painting is experienced solely by sight and sculpture solely by touch) -Generally no clear separation is made in experience between the faculties of sight and touch. -Even if one kind of senses initiates a perception, a chain reaction triggers other sensations, either by sensory motor connections or by memory associations.
Machine Sculpture
-Jean Tinguely is dedicated to humanizing the machine. His "Homage to New York" , exhibited of Modern Art in 1960, was not only a machine sculpture but a onetime sculpture performance. -Homage to New York was exhibited in the sculpture garden of the Museum of modern art in new work, where it operated for some twenty-seven minutes until it destroyed itself. This was a late dadaist experiment. (which depicted death of humans)
Jeff Koons (pg 126)
-Jeff Koons has made a career by pushing faint the idea of truth to materials. His "Balloon Dog (magenta)" 1994-2000 Mirror-polished stainless steel with transparent color is a whimsical piece and amuses young and old alike. Much of his work seems to be an attempt to call the entire question "What is Art?" to the forefront.
Low-relief
-Low-relief sculpture projects relatively slightly from its background plane, and so its depth dimension is very limited.
Michelangelo Buonarroti
-Made the sculpture Called "David" 1501-1504 Accademia, Florence. The heroic David stood as Florence's warning to powers that might consider attacking the city-state. It represents Michelangelo's idealization of the human form and remains a Renaissance ideal.
Medium Relief/ High-relief
-Medium- and high-relief sculpture project farther from their backgrounds, and their depth dimensions are expanded. -Frank Stella's: "Giufa, the Moon, the Thieves, and the Guards" is most usefully classified as sculpture of the medium-relief species. The materiality of the magnesium, the fiberglass, and especially the aluminum Is brought out very powerfully by their juxtaposition (the fact of two things being seen or placed close together with contrasting effect.) Unfortunately, this is difficult to perceive from a photograph. Because of its three-dimensionality, sculpture generally suffers even more than painting from being seen only in a photograph. -The high-relief structure from a thirteenth-century temple in Orissa was carved during a period of intense temple-building in that part of India "Mithuna Couple". (figure 5-4) The tenderness of the two figures is emphasized by the roundness of the bodies as well as by the rhythms of the lines of the figures and the overarching swoon of the vegetation above them. This temple carving was made in a very rough stone, which emphasizes the bulk and mass of the man and woman, despite their association with religious practice. Almost a thousand years ago of weathering have increased its sense of texture. The happy expression on the faces is consistent with the great erotic religious sculpture of this period. (combining the diviner's spirit with the erotic)
Henry Moore
-Sculptor of "Recumbent Figure" Recumbent figure Is one of an enormous number of similar sculptures by Moore in both stone and bronze. This stone piece distorts the figure in ways reminiscent of Picasso's painting of the same period -Henry Moore has stated "Every material has its own individual qualities. It is only when the sculptor works direct, when there is an active relationship with his material, that the material can take its part in the shaping of an idea. Stone, for example, is hard and concentrated and should not be falsified to look like soft flesh- it should not be forced beyond its constructive build to a point of weakness. It should keep its hard tense stoniness."
Sculpture in the Round
-Sculpture in the round is freed from any background plane, and so its depth dimension is unrestricted. -Edgar Degas's "The Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dance" , one of several of his sculptures of dancers, was not universally approved by the critics at its first showing. A number of critics thought it grotesque (ugly, deformed) and others were mystified (confused, puzzled) by its subject matter, which they thought rather common. But some commentators saw immediately that it was one of the most modern of sculptures and its simplicity has helped it become one of the most admired modern sculptures. Despite the fact that the little dancer is not dancing, we sense that she is prepared to move almost immediately. The subject matter on one level is the dancer herself, and the content points to her capacity to move, even though she is bronze. Her posture, leg forward, leaning back as if to spring upon the viewer, implies great energy and power. She is small, and her tutu- which differs in every museum displaying the work- clarities her talent for dance, As we look at her we see her pose as only a dancer would pose. For some viewers the subject matter is not only the fourteen-year-old girl, but dance itself. It is as if Degas had somehow distilled the essence of dance in this one figure -Sculptures generally are more or less a center (the place of most importance that organizes the places around it/ center) of actual three-dimensional shape: MORE in the case of sculpture in the round LESS in the case of low relief. That is why sculpture in the round is more typically sculpture than is the other species. -Other things being equal, sculpture in the round, because of its three-dimensional centeredness, brings out the voluminosity and density of things more certainly than does any other kind of sculpture. -First, we can see and perhaps touch all sides. But more important, our sense of density has something to do with our awareness of Bodies as three-dimensional centers thrusting out into our surrounding environment.
Size in Sculpture. (pg 124)
-Size in sculpture can be significant for many reasons. Michelangelo intentionally made David as large as a political statement in Florence. The great Renaissance sculptor Donatello had created an earlier David that was slightly smaller than a life-size boy, part ly as a way of emphasizing the fact that a small warrior degreased the large warrior. But Michelangelo's heroic-size figure was a warning to other Italian city-states that Florence was not easy picking at a time when regional wars were common. Rodin's Danaide is much smaller than David, but its expressive, as Rodin suggests, is considerable despite its size.
Sunken-relief
-The Temple Carving is an example of a sunken-relief sculpture. -The Temple Carving is engraved in sandstone, representing the gods Horus and Hathor. These figures have weathered for millennia, yet they are sharp and distinct. For the ancient Egyptians they told a familiar story, reassuring them that the gods are supportive in the next world. -Jackson Pollock's "The Flame" painting surface is similar the Temple Carving. (although their subject matters are very different). Pollock's painting, although considered essentially flat, it build up and, in some spots, projects slightly into space -The temple is sunken-relief, because it does not project into space, as do most sculptures, but actually projects inward, into the surface of the stone. -The light helps clarify the tactile qualities of the Temple Carving by revealing the sharp edges of sandstone. The density of the stone is evident. We virtually sense the weight of the object. -Pollock's painting lacks significant tactile appeal despite the projection of its thick paint. -And while the Temple Carving makes us aware of its material texture and substance- perhaps even revealing essential qualities of the limestone- Pollocks painting remains an essentially two-dimensional image whose impact is much less tactile than visual
Sculpture
-The concept of "all-at-onceness" that usually relates to painting does not relate to sculpture because in most cases sculpture is a mass extending into space inviting us to walk around and view it from several positions. -While some sculpture seems best viewed from a single position, as in carved reliefs such as the "Temple Carving", most sculpture, such as (Michelangelo's "David") or (Rodin's "Danaïde"), must be viewed from a number of positions. As we move around a sculpture, we build in our imagination's eye the whole, but at no instant in time can we conceive it's wholeness (that's why sculpture doesn't relate to the concept "all-at-onceness")
Sensory Space
-The space around a sculpture is sensory rather than empty. Despite its invisibility, sensory space- like the wind- is felt. -Sculptures that Arp's Growth are surrounded by radiating vectors, something like the axis lines of painting. But with sculpture, our bodies as well as our eyes are directed. Growth is like a magnet drawing us in and around. With relief sculptures, except for very high relief such as the Mithuna Couple, our bodies tend to get stabilized in one favored position. -The framework of front and sides meeting at sharp angles, as in Giufa, the Moon...... , limits our movements to 180 degrees at most. Although we are likely to move around within this limited range for a while, our movements gradually slow down, as they do when we finally get settled in a comfortable chair. We are not Cyclops with just one eye, and so we see something of the three-dimensionality of things even when restricted to one position. But even low-relief sculpture encourages some movement of the most, because we sense that different perspectives, however slight, may bring out something we have not directly perceived, especially something more of the three-dimensionality of the materials.
Chapter 5 Summary
-sculpture is perceived differently from painting, engaging more acutely with our sense of touch and the feeling of our bodies. Whereas painting is more about the visual appearance of things, sculpture is more about things as three-dimensional masses. -Whereas painting only represents voluminosity and density, sculpture presents these qualities -Sculpture in the round, especiallyy, brings out the three-dimensionality of objects. No object is more important to us than our bodies, and their "strange thickness" is always with is. When the human body is the subject matter, sculptors more than any other art reveals a material counterpoint for our mental images of our bnodies -Traditional sculpture is made by either modeling or carving. Many contemporary sculptures, however, are made by assembling preformed pieces of material. -New sculptural techniques and materials have opened developments in avant-garde sculpture that defy classification. Nonetheless, contemporary sculptors, generally, have emphasized truth to materials, respect for the medium that is organized by their forms. Space, protest against technology, accommodation with technology, machine, and earth sculpture are five of the most important new species. Public sculpture is flourishing.
What do Abstract painters do VS Abstract Sculptors?
ABSTRACT PAINTERS: -Generally emphasize the surfaces of sense, as in Untitled 1943. Their interest is in the vast ranges of color qualities, lines, and the play of light that bring out textural nuances. ABSTRACT SCULPTORS: -Generally restrict themselves to a minimal range of color, line , and textural qualities and emphasize light not only to play on these qualities but also to bring out the inherence of these qualities in things. Whereas abstract painters are shippers of surface sensations, abstract sculptors are shepherds of depth sensa.
Sculpture and Architecture Compared
ARCHITECTURE is the art of separating inner from outer space so that the inner space can be used for practical purposes. SCULPTURE does not provide a practically usable inner space. Sphinx and the Pyramid of Cheops Circa 2850 BCE. They are the densest (thick, heavy) and most substantial of all works. They attract us visually and tactilely. Since there is no usable space within the Sphinx, it is sculpture. Within the Pyramid, however, space was provided for the burial of the dead. There is a separation of inner from outer space for the functional use of the inner space. Yet the use of this inner space is so limited that the living often have a difficult time finding it. The inner space is functional only in a restricted sense- is this Pyramid, then, a sculpture or architecture? The difficulty of the question points up an important factor to keep in mind. The distinctions between the arts we have been and will be making are helpful in order to talk about them intelligibly, but the arts rests neat pigeonholing (categorize), and attempt at that are futile (incapable of producing any useful result; pointless.)
Sculpture and Painting Compared Arshile Gorky's "Untitled" 1943 (painting). VS Arp's "Growth" (Sculpture)
Both works are abstract, neither has objects or events as its primary subject matter. -Clear-cut answers of what both works are indicating is not possible -The painting doesn't appear to be a material thing (even though the painting is on a canvas, the weight of the canvas is irrelevant to our participation with "Untitled" 1943 as a work of art) , while the Arp's "Growth" marble is dense material. This substantiality of the marble is very much a part of its appearance as sculpture. -Gorky has abstracted sensations, especially colors, from objects or things, whereas Arp has brought out the substantiality of a thing---- the density of the marble. -Figuration (ornamentation by means of figures or designs) is not "in" Gorky's painting. But Arp has made the marble relevant to his sculpture.
African Sculpture. (135)
Sub-Saharan African Sculpture has exerted an important influence on Western art since the late eighteenth century, but it was especially influential on nineteens and twentieth century artists such as Paul Gauguin, Constantantine Brancisu , especially Pablo Picasso.
Accommodation with Technology
Many contemporary sculptors see in technology blessings for humankind. It is true that sculpture can be accomplished with the most primitive tools . Nevertheless, sculpture in our day, far more than painting, can take advantage of some of the most sophisticated advances of technology, surpassed in this respect only by architecture. -Many sculptors today interpret the positive rather than the negative aspects of technology. This respect for technology is expressed by truth to its materials and the showing forth of its methodology
What is the difference between sculpture space and painting space?
PAINTING: a painting is usually set off by a frame, the painting space being imaginary, separate and distinct from real space. Between the painting and us, space is transparent (clear). SCULPTURE: With sculpture, the space between is translucent (allowing light, but not detailed shapes, to pass through; semitransparent), the space from the material body of a work of art to the participator we call "the between." -With sculpture, even if we do not actually touch the material body, we can still sense the solidity of the material body permeating and animating the surrounding space. -Shadows cast by a sculpture, for example, slant into the space between us and the material body of the sculpture, charging the between with energy, whereas shadows cast by the things represented in a painting stay within the painting. -The convexities (the quality or state of being curved outward : the quality or state of being convex. : a shape that is curved outward : a convex shape) of a sculpture are actively outgoing into the between, and the between invades the concavities (having an outline or surface that curves inward like the interior of a circle or sphere), whereas the convexities and concavities of a painting stay within the frame. -With sculpture in our view there is also a direct or physical impact. The space between us and any three-dimensional thing that we are perceiving comes forth into our perception, by literally pushing into our bodies. Sculpture transforms real space, making the between more perceptible and impacting. To put it awkwardly but brief, sculpture is a "more real world."
What does relief sculpture do?
Relief sculpture, except sunken relief, allows its materials to stand out from a background plane. Thus, relief sculpture in at least one way reveals its materials simply by showing us-directly- their surface and something of their depth. By moving to a side of Frank Stella's: "Giufa, the Moon, the Thieves, and the Guards" , we can see that the materials are of such and such thickness. However, this three-dimensionality in relief sculpture, this movement out into space, is not allowed to lose its ties to its background plane. Hence, relief structure, like painting, is usually best viewed from a frontal position.
What does most sculptures do , whether it's abstract or representational?
Sculpture returns us to the voluminosity (bulk), density (mass), and tactile quality of things. -Sculpture is more than skin deep (superficial, surface, external)
Sculpture and the Human Body
Sculptures generally are more or less a center (the place of most importance that organizes the places around it/ center) of actual three-dimensional shape: MORE in the case of sculpture in the round LESS in the case of low relief. That is why sculpture in the round is more typically sculpture than is the other species. -Other things being equal, sculpture in the round, because of its three-dimensional centeredness, brings out the voluminosity and density of things more certainly than does any other kind of sculpture. -First, we can see and perhaps touch all sides. But more important, our sense of density has something to do with our awareness of Bodies as three-dimensional centers thrusting out into our surrounding environment. -Philosopher-critic Gaston Bachelard remarks that "Immensity (the extremely large size, scale, or extent of something.) , is within ourselves. It is attached to a sort of expansion of being which life curbs and caution arrests, but which starts again when we are alone. As soon as we become motionless, we are elsewhere; we are dreaming in a world that is immense. Indeed, immensity is the movement of a motionless man. -Lachaise's "Floating Figure" 1927 New York's Museum of modern art, with its ballooning buoyancy (lightness) emerging with lonely but powerful internal animation from a graceful ellipse, expresses not only his feeling but also something of the instinctual longing we have to become one with the world about us. Sculpture in the round, even when it does not portray the human body, often gives us something of an objective image of our internal bodily awareness as related to its surrounding space. Furthermore, when the human body is portrayed in the round, we have the most vivid material image of our internal feelings.
Tactile
The tactile nature of sculpture is important for us to recognize, just as it is important to recognize imaginatively the density and weight of a piece of sculpture.
What is the underlying reason the term "abstract painting" is used more frequently than the term "abstract sculpture"?
There is an awkwardness about describing as abstract something as material as most sculpture. Still, the distinction between abstract and representational sculpture is worth making, just as with painting, for being clear about the subject of a work of art is essential to all sensitive participation. It is the key to understanding the content, for the content is the subject matter interpreted by means of the form.
What do "David" and "Danaide" present?
They present objective correlative, which are images that are objective in the sense that they are "out there" and yet correlate or are similar to subjective awareness. They clarify inner bodily sensations as well as outward appearance. These are largish, highly speculative claims. You may disagree, of course, but we hope they will stimulate your thinking. -When we participate with these sculptures, we find something of our bodily selves confronting us. If we demanded all of our bodily selves, we would be both disappointed and stupid. Art is always a transformation of reality, never a duplication. -The Danaide is substantial because the female shape, texture, grace, sensuality, sexuality, and beauty are interpreted by a form and thus clarified. Moreover, in the human body, mind is incarnate (in the flesh, in human form). Feeling, though, purposefulness- spirit- have taken shape with the Danaide
Earth Sculpture
To make the earth itself the medium, the site, and the subject matter. -Robert Smithson was a pioneer in earthwork sculpture. great Salk lake, "Spiral Jetty" 1970
Truth to materials sculpture is an implicit protest against technological dominance
Truth to materials sculpture is an implicit protest against technological dominance
Where are relief structures best viewed from?
a frontal position
What is the subject matter of most abstract sculpture?
the density of sensations. -Sculpture is more than skin deep -Abstract painting can only represent density, whereas sculpture, whether abstract or representational, presents density.
All sculptures always evokes
our outward sensations and sometimes our inner sensations. -Sculpture in the round often evokes our inward sensations, for such sculpture often has human characteristics in some respect (anthropomorphic) -Sculpture in the round that has the human body as its subject matter not only often evokes our inward sensations, but also interprets them.
