How to Appreciate Modern Sculpture
Essay on How to Understand Contemporary
Plastic Art.
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How to Appreciate Modern Sculpture
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How to Appreciate Modern SculptureContents • How to Evaluate
Modern 3-D Art Additional Resources • How
to Appreciate Sculpture |
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Important Sculptures Bather II by Contemporary Irish The Dachau Memorial (1968) Dog (1994) by Jeff Koons.
TYPES OF SCULPTURE |
How to Evaluate Modern 3-D Art In very simple terms, the expression "modern 3-D art" refers to sculpture of the modern era, which began about 1850. It was the time when traditional principles of art were coming under serious pressure from modernists, who were beginning to question some of the pedantic conventions of academic art, as taught in the grand European academies of fine arts. At the same time, movements like Impressionism, Expressionism, Cubism and Futurism, introduced twentieth century sculptors to a variety of revolutionary ideas. The aesthetics of modern sculpture were characterized, above all, by a move away from simply copying nature (eg. in traditional-style portraits, group scenes), towards works with more of a message - more of an attitude! Conventional rules of composition, perspective, and presentation were discarded, while the type of materials used, widened dramatically. In order to appreciate the huge changes introduced by modern plastic art, remember, most sculpture schools taught only drawing from life, and stone carving, with perhaps some bronze casting and wood-carving on the side. They were totally ill-equipped to respond to the clamour for new ideas, new methods and new materials. To help you learn (or teach students) how to evaluate works of modern sculpture, this webpage contains explanations from most of the major schools, from the mid-19th century to the present day. It features references to important modern artists along with their artworks, with individual explanations where relevant. That said, no written article about 3-D art appreciation is as instructive as a visit to a sculpture gallery, garden or museum, where you can walk around or even 'into' the exhibits and study them closely from different angles. So please visit our guide to the best art museums. Remember, sculpture is a three-dimensional art, and can only be fully appreciated in the flesh. |
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For sculptures in wood, |
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How to Appreciate Nineteenth Century Sculpture (1800-1900) Nineteenth century sculptors had a hard time. Religious patronage had collapsed, while state patronage was uncertain, and limited largely to commemorative statues of monarchs, patriotic statesmen and clerics. It wasn't until the turn of the century that sculptors were able to reflect the new trends of modern art. One exception to this was the great French sculptor Auguste Rodin (1840-1917). Rodin considered himself to be the natural successor to his hero Michelangelo - even though the Florentine was a carver in stone while Rodin was primarily a modeller in bronze. The individual styles of the two men were also poles apart. Michelangelo epitomizes the timeless nobility of Classical Antiquity, whereas Rodin's works are unmistakably modern, with a dramatic, expressive naturalism. Rodin's true predecessors are surely the Gothic sculptors, of whom he was a passionate admirer. See in particular his masterpieces such as: The Age of Bronze (1876, Musee d'Orsay, Paris), The Thinker (1881, Musee Rodin, Paris), The Kiss (1888-9, Musee Rodin, Paris) and The Burghers of Calais (1889, Musee Rodin, Paris). Other sculptors of the period worth studying, include: the romantics Francois Rude (1784-1855) and Auguste Preault (1809-79); the highly talented, light-hearted Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux (1827-75), and his follower Jules Dalou (1838-1902); as well as the classicist Alfred Stevens (1817-75), and the versatile George Frederick Watts (1817-1904). In addition, the 19th century produced several masterpieces of architectural sculpture. These include: Nelson's Column (1840-3), the 185-feet monument to Lord Nelson (topped by a 17-feet high statue of Nelson himself) designed by E.H.Baily and located in Trafalgar Square; the Statue of Liberty (1886, Liberty Island, New York Harbour), the iconic 302-feet high statue designed by the French sculptor Bartholdi (1834-1904); and the Parisian landmark, the 1,000-feet high wrought-iron Eiffel Tower (1885-9), designed by the engineer Gustav Eiffel and architect Stephen Sauvestre. In 1922, the American sculptor Daniel Chester French (1850-1931) achieved immortality with another monumental public sculpture - the seated figure of Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC.
Other 19th Century Sculptures to Evaluate • Orestes Sheltered in the Pallas
Altar (1840) Rouen. Pierre-Charles Simart. |
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How to Appreciate Twentieth Century Sculpture (1900-45) The new century witnessed the emergence of the first of the great modern sculptors Constantin Brancusi (1876-1957) and Umberto Boccioni (1882-1916). In The Kiss (1907, Hamburgerkunsthalle, Hamburg) and Sleeping Muse (1910, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), Brancusi reduces natural forms to their ultimate basics, without losing their essential humanity. The Kiss, in particular, conveys a profound primitivism, but one that illustrates Brancusi's faith in the power of human emotion. Looking at the world with a more politico-historical focus, Boccioni's Futurist-style Unique Forms of Continuity in Space (1913, Museum of Modern Art, New York) epitomizes the movement and dynamism of the machine age. It personnifies the new technological man, powerfully striding through space, and symbolizes his triumph over nature. Both sculptors exemplify the trend away from representationalism, towards a more challenging idiom in which conceptualism and formalism merge. Cubism, the revolutionary style of modern art pioneered by Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) and Georges Braque (1882-1963), triggered a wave of experimentation in abstract sculpture. Examples of Cubist 3-D art include: Woman Walking (1912, Denver Museum of Art) by Alexander Archipenko (1887-1964); Large Horse (1914, Musee National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris) by Raymond Duchamp-Villon (1876-1918); Man With Guitar (1915, MoMA, New York) by Jacques Lipchitz (1891-1973); Head of a Woman (1917, MoMA, New York) by Naum Gabo (1890-1977); Fruit Dish with Grapes (1918) by Henri Laurens (1885-1954); and Torso (1924-6, MoMA, NY) by Antoine Pevsner (1886-1962). The carnage of World War I led to harrowing sculptures like Fallen Man (1916, New National Gallery, Berlin) and Seated Youth (1918, Stadel Art Institute) both by Wilhelm Lehmbruck (1881-1919), the expressionist artist who committed suicide after his experiences in a World War I hospital. It also led directly to Dada, whose concept of junk art was aptly illustrated by Fountain (1917, replicas in several museums) by Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968), and the unique Merzbau of Kurt Schwitters (1887-1948). During the inter-war years, plastic art evolved along a number of lines, which we can characterize, in simple terms, as follows: • Technological Sculpture • Abstraction • Movement • The Absurd • Organic Shapes • Industrial Materials |
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How to Appreciate Late Twentieth Century Sculpture (1945-2000) This period witnessed the continued evolution of the six styles of sculpture listed above, as well as an amount of genuine innovation. Technological Sculpture Abstraction Movement/Decomposition The Absurd or Surreal Organic Shapes Industrial Materials
Innovations New forms of sculpture which appeared during the second half of the 20th century, include the following: Assemblage Superrealism Gigantism Britart (Young British Artists) Other 20th Century Sculptures to Evaluate • Crouching Figure (1907) Museum
of Modern Art, Vienna. By Andre Derain. |
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• For more about sculpture appreciation, see: Homepage.
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ART |
