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WORLD OF ARTWORLD OF ART

CHAPTER

EIGHTH EDITION

World of Art, Eighth EditionHenry M. Sayre

Copyright © 2016, 2013, 2010by Pearson Education, Inc. or its affiliates.

All rights reserved.

Sculpture

12

Learning ObjectivesLearning Objectives1 of 21 of 2

1. Differentiate among relief, sculpture in-the-round, and sculpture as an environment.

2. Describe carving as a method of sculpture and account for its association with spiritual life.

3. Account for the popularity of molded ceramic sculpture.

Learning ObjectivesLearning Objectives2 of 22 of 2

4. Describe the casting process, and the lost-wax process in particular.

5. Define assemblage and account for its association with the idea of transformation.

6. Compare and contrast installations and earthworks as environments.

7. Describe how the body becomes sculptural in performance art.

IntroductionIntroduction1 of 21 of 2

• Sculpture employs two processes. Subtractive processes are when the

sculptor works with materials larger than the finished work and the mass has pieces removed until the mass achieves its final form.

Additive processes are when the artist builds the work from added materials.

IntroductionIntroduction2 of 22 of 2

• Sarah Sze's Triple Point (Pendulum) is an additive work consisting of objects arranged in a circle and oriented like a compass. A pendulum hanging from the ceiling is

at the center of the work. The objects create a sense of purpose

and randomness simultaneously.

Sarah Sze, Triple Point (Pendulum).2013. Salt, water, stone, string, projector, video, pendulum, and mixed media,

dimensions variable.© Sarah Sze. Courtesy of Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York and Victoria Miro Gallery,

London. Photograph: Tom Powel Imaging. [Fig. 12-1]

The Three Forms of The Three Forms of Sculptural SpaceSculptural Space

• Sculptures intrude into the viewers' space as relief, in-the-round, and environments.

• Performance art can create a living sculpture from the bodies of its performers.

ReliefRelief1 of 31 of 3

• A carved relief sculpture has three-dimensional depth but is only meant to be viewed from one side, or frontally.

• Low (bas-) relief and high (haut-) relief are ways to describe this type of sculpture according to how shallow or deep its characteristics are carved. High-relief sculptures project from their

base by at least half their depth.


• The Parthenon frieze, called Maidens and Stewards, is considered low relief and features naturalistic figures.

• Two examples of high-relief sculpture were the depictions of the Sacrifice of Isaac created by Brunelleschi and Ghiberti in competition to win the commission for the baptistery doors in Florence.

Maidens and Stewards, fragment of the Panathenaic Procession, from the east frieze of the Parthenon, Acropolis, Athens.

447–438 BCE. Marble, height approx. 43". Musée du Louvre, Paris.Bridgeman Images. [Fig. 12-2]


• Brunelleschi rendered his figures as nearly fully realized 360-degree forms with the act of sacrifice taking place at center and the angel intervening directly at the top.

• Ghiberti placed the act of Isaac's sacrifice to one side, allowing for a more dynamic representation of the angel; he won the commission.

Filippo Brunelleschi, Sacrifice of Isaac, competition relief commissioned for the doors of the Baptistery, Florence.

1401–02. Parcel-gilt bronze, 21 × 17-1/2". Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence.© Studio Fotografico Quattrone, Florence. [Fig. 12-3]

Lorenzo Ghiberti, Sacrifice of Isaac, competition relief commissioned for the doors of the Baptistery, Florence.

1401–02. Parcel-gilt bronze, 21 × 17-1/2". Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence.© Studio Fotografico Quattrone, Florence. [Fig. 12-4]

Sculpture In-the-RoundSculpture In-the-Round

• Freestanding sculpture demands movement of the viewer to see it from all sides.

• Capture of the Sabine Women shows a rising spiral of figures with each side changing the viewer's experience. Giambologna's genius of composition

mattered more than the subject matter, which shifted after it was created.

Giambologna, The Capture of the Sabine Women.1583. Marble, height 13' 6". Loggia dei Lanzi, Florence.© Studio Fotografico Quattrone, Florence. [Fig. 12-5]

Giambologna, The Capture of the Sabine Women.1583. Marble, height 13' 6". Loggia dei Lanzi, Florence.© Studio Fotografico Quattrone, Florence. [Fig. 12-6]

EnvironmentsEnvironments1 of 21 of 2

• Environments are sculptural spaces in which viewers can enter or visually explore.

• They are also referred to as installations.

• Earthworks are large-scale outdoor environments made from the land.

• Site-specific works were made to transform a particular space.

EnvironmentsEnvironments2 of 22 of 2

• TorusMacroCopula is a work by Ernesto Neto designed for the Louis Vuitton Tokyo store. The structure is a circle around a central

axis that has been cut, and that the viewer must link in their mind as they walk across it.

Imbalance makes the viewer contemplate the concept of madness.

Ernesto Neto, TorusMacroCopula, one of four sculptures in Madness is Part of Life.2012. Installation view, Espace Louis Vuitton, Tokyo, 2012–13. Polypropylene, polyester

string, and plastic balls, length 25' 7".Courtesy of the artist, Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York, and Galeria Fortes Vilaça, Säo

Paolo. [Fig. 12-7]

CarvingCarving1 of 31 of 3

• Material being carved is chipped, gouged, or hammered away from an inert block of raw material.

• Sculptors who work in wood must pay attention to the wood's grain, as working against it could destroy the work.

• Stone has different qualities and must be worked with accordingly.


• Michelangelo's "Atlas Slave" is unfinished, a testament to the struggle of working with stone as well as an imaginative compromise by the artist.

• In ancient Egypt, stone funerary figures were built to house an individual's ka or spirit. Stone represented an enduring

permanence.

Michelangelo, "Atlas" Slave.ca. 1513–20. Marble, 9' 2". Galleria dell'Accademia, Florence.

© 2015. Photo Scala, Florence, courtesy of the Ministero Beni e Att. Culturali. [Fig. 12-8]


• Ancient Greeks adopted a more naturalistic style. The Kouros shows more relaxation, and

lifelike posture and proportion. Praxiteles's Hermes and Dionysus is an

example of contrapposto, or counterbalance, where the figure's weight falls on one foot and the shoulders are turned, creating an S-shape.

Menkaure with a Woman, probably Khamerernebty, from valley temple of Menkaure, Giza.Dynasty 4, ca. 2480 BCE. Schist, height 4' 8". Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Boston Museum Fine Art Expedition, 11.1738. Photograph © 2015 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. [Fig. 12-9]

Kouros (a.k.a. The Kritios Boy).ca. 480 BCE. Marble, height 36".

Inv. no. 698 akg-image/De Agostini/G. Nimatallah. [Fig. 12-10]

Praxiteles, Hermes and Dionysus.ca. 330 BCE. Marble, height 7' 1". National Archaeological Museum, Athens.

© Craig & Marie Mauzy, Athens. [Fig. 12-11]

ModelingModeling1 of 21 of 2

• This is an additive process in which a pliant substance (usually clay) is molded.

• Clay can be made more durable by firing it in a kiln, or oven, at high temperatures.

ModelingModeling2 of 22 of 2

• Works of clay are called ceramics.• Chinese mastery of ceramic art is

exemplified in the warriors found at the tomb of Qin Shihuangdi. More than 6,000 life-size figures of

soldiers and horses acted as immortal bodyguards for the emperor.

Tomb of Emperor Qin Shihuangdi.221–206 BCE. Painted ceramic figures, life-size.

© O. Louis Mazzatenta/National Geographic. [Fig. 12-12]

CastingCasting1 of 51 of 5

• Casting involves a mold into which molten material is poured and allowed to harden. Bronze, brass, and other materials can

be poured into a mold.• The Head of an Oba from Benin in the

eighteenth century was cast in bronze. The traditional heads are not portraits,

but generalized images.

Head of an Oba, Nigeria, Africa, Edo, Court of Benin.18th century. Brass and iron, height 13-1/8". Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Klaus G. Perls, 1991.17.2. © 2015. Image copyright Metropolitan

Museum of Art/Art Resource/Scala, Florence. [Fig. 12-13]


• Greeks perfected the lost-wax (or cire-perdue) process of casting. A sculpture is modeled in a pliable

material, then a mold is made of the model.

Wax is poured into the impression and filled with an investment; then, the mold is removed and wax rods are applied.


• Greeks perfected the lost-wax (or cire-perdue) process of casting. Another investment covers the wax cast

and it is baked in a kiln, where the wax runs out.

Bronze is poured into the casting gate, a replacement process for the wax that had been there.

The lost-wax casting process. [Fig. 12-14]


• Bronze can be joined either by a hammer or by welding.

• Auguste Rodin's Burghers of Calais was welded together from individual pieces. He used the gestures of the hand to

create emotion in the piece. The sculpture was intended to be

viewed from the ground and individuals must walk around it to experience it.

Auguste Rodin, The Burghers of Calais.1884–85. Bronze, 6' 7-3/8" × 6' 8-7/8". Place de l'Hôtel de Ville, Calais, France.

© imageBROKER/Alamy. [Fig. 12-15]


• Bronze was long favored for outdoor sculptural works, but aluminum and fiberglass have become available in more recent years.

• John Ahearn created Homage... with cast fiberglass made from plaster casts of living subjects. He sought to capture the spirit of an

impoverished community with dignity.

John Ahearn, Homage to the People of the South Bronx: Double Dutch at Kelly Street 1: Frieda, Jevette, Towana, Stacey.

1981–82. Cast fiberglass, oil, and cable, each figure 4' 6" × 4' 6" × 12".Image courtesy of Alexander and Bonin, New York. [Fig. 12-16]

AssemblageAssemblage1 of 41 of 4

• Assemblage is the process of bringing individual objects together to form a larger whole.

• Louise Nevelson's Sky Cathedral is a frontal work that functions like a high-relief altarpiece, with wooden boxes housing found objects and painted all in black.

Louise Nevelson, Sky Cathedral.1958. Wood, painted black, 9' 7" × 11' 3" × 28" Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York.Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Ben Mildwoff, 136.1958.1-57. © 2015. Digital image, Museum of Modern Art, New York/Scala, Florence. © 2015 Estate of Louise Nevelson/Artists Rights Society (ARS),

New York. [Fig. 12-17]


• African cultures use assemblage to create objects of spiritual significance. The display piece from the Yoruba

culture combines beadwork, cloth, and basketry to portray a royal wife.

Designs play on geometric shapes and patterns as well as the principle of "shine," or wholeness.

Display piece, Yoruba culture.Early 20th century. Cloth, basketry, beads, and fiber, height 41-1/4". The British Museum,

London.Af1924,-.136. © The Trustees of the British Museum. [Fig. 12-18]


• Jeff Koons's kitschy sculptures recreate commodity culture. One of his most audacious works is

Puppy, consisting of a stainless steel armature with irrigation lines and live flowering plants.• It was inspired by the extravagance of

the palace of Versailles.

Jeff Koons, Puppy.1992. Stainless steel, soil, geotextile fabric, internal irrigation system, and live flowering

plants, 40' 6". × 40' 6" × 21' 4". The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York.Art Archive/Neil Setchfield. Art © Jeff Koons. [Fig. 12-19]


• Robert Gober juxtaposes fragments of domestic life to create works that seem somewhat nightmarish. Untitled leaves an open-ended meaning,

evoking a wide range of American clichés.• The sink lacks real water spigots, as they

have been replaced with two left legs of a young girl.

Robert Gober, Untitled.1999. Plaster, beeswax, human hair, cotton, leather, aluminum pull tabs, and enamel

paint, 33-1/2 × 40 × 24-3/4". Philadelphia Museum of Art.Gift (by exchange) of Mrs. Arthur Barnwell, 1999. © 2015. Photo Philadelphia Museum of

Art/Art Resource/Scala, Florence. Photo: Graydon Wood. © Robert Gober. Courtesy of Matthew Marks Gallery. [Fig. 12-20]

Installations and EarthworksInstallations and Earthworks

• The introduction of a work of art into an unexpected environment can be transformative, causing us to readjust our expectations for art.

InstallationsInstallations1 of 21 of 2

• Nancy Rubins's Pleasure Point is attached to the roof of the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego. It features a conglomeration of boats

that have been placed in the air rather than in the water.

• Cloud Gate reflects the Chicago skyline and appears weightless to the eye despite weighing some 100 tons.

Nancy Rubins, Pleasure Point.2006. Nautical vessels, stainless steel, stainless-steel wire, and boats,

25' 4" × 53' 1" × 24' Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego.Museum Purchase, International and Contemporary Collectors Funds. © Nancy Rubins. Collection Photo: Pablo Mason. Courtesy of the artist and Gagosian Gallery. [Fig. 12-21]

Anish Kapoor, Cloud Gate.2004. Stainless steel, 33 × 66 × 42' Millennium Park, Chicago.

© Arcaid Images/Alamy. Courtesy of the City of Chicago and Gladstone Gallery, New York and Brussels. © Anish Kapoor. [Fig. 12-22]

InstallationsInstallations2 of 22 of 2

• Eleanor Antin's Minetta Lane—A Ghost Story features three narrative films projected onto tenement windows. The ghost of a little girl destroys the

scenes in these videos. The lovers and old man represent ideas

about art, sexuality, and life that no longer pertain.

Eleanor Antin, Minetta Lane—A Ghost Story.1995. Mixed-media installation. Installation view.

Courtesy of the artist and Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York. [Fig. 12-23]

Eleanor Antin, Minetta Lane—A Ghost Story.1995. Mixed-media installation. Video still showing actors Amy McKenna and Joshua

Coleman. Courtesy of the artist and Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York. [Fig. 12-24]

Eleanor Antin, Minetta Lane—A Ghost Story.1995. Mixed-media installation. Video still showing artist's window with Miriam (the Ghost).

Courtesy of the artist and Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York. [Fig. 12-25]

EarthworksEarthworks1 of 21 of 2

• Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty is an exemplary work that is landscape, simply created by man. It is made by mud, salt crystals, rocks,

and water. The spiral shape is one that represents

ornamentation of many cultures across time.

It was subject to changes in nature.

Robert Smithson, Spiral Jetty.April 1970. Great Salt Lake, Utah. Black rock, salt crystals, earth, red water (algae),

3' 6" × 15' × 1,500'.Collection: Dia Art Foundation, New York. Courtesy of James Cohan Gallery, New York and

Shanghai. Art ©Holt Smithson Foundation/Licensed by VAGA, New York. [Fig. 12-26]

Robert Smithson, Spiral Jetty.As it appeared in August 2003.

Photo: Sandy Brooke. [Fig. 12-27]

EarthworksEarthworks2 of 22 of 2

• Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty is an exemplary work that is landscape, simply created by man. The work was directly inspired by the

Great Serpent Mound earthwork in Ohio.• It was built by the Hopewell culture

between 600 BCE and 200 CE.• It may have served a ceremonial

purpose.

Great Serpent Mound, Adams County, Ohio, Hopewell culture.ca. 600 BCE–200 CE. Length approx. 1,254'.

Tony Linck/SuperStock. [Fig. 12-28]

Art ParksArt Parks1 of 21 of 2

• Art parks are crossovers of installations and earthworks.

• Karen McCoy created works for Stone Quarry Hill Art Park that included a grid of arrowhead leaf plants in a pond meant to reflect man's regimented effect on the nature around it.

Karen McCoy, Considering Mother's Mantle, project for Stone Quarry Hill Art Park, Cazenovia, New York.

1992. View of gridded pond made by transplanting arrowhead leaf plants, 40 × 50'.Photo courtesy of the artist. [Fig. 12-29]

Karen McCoy, Considering Mother's Mantle, project for Stone Quarry Hill Art Park, Cazenovia, New York (detail).

1992. Gridded pond made by transplanting arrowhead leaf plants, 40 × 50'.Photo courtesy of the artist. [Fig. 12-30]

Art ParksArt Parks2 of 22 of 2

• Zhang Huan's Three-Legged Buddha is a recent addition to the Storm King Art Center. It was conceived as a tribute to all

Buddha sculptures destroyed in China's Cultural Revolution in the 60s and 70s.

Incense burns inside the sculpture and rises through the perforations and hatches accessible to viewers.

Zhang Huan, Three-Legged Buddha.2007. Steel and copper, 28' 2-1/2" × 42' × 22' 7-5/8". Storm King Art Center, Hudson

Valley, New York.Photograph by Jerry L. Thompson © Zhang Huan Studio, courtesy of Pace Gallery.

[Fig. 12-31]

Performance Art as Performance Art as Living SculptureLiving Sculpture

1 of 4 1 of 4

• Zhang Huan also explored performances before coming to America. He invited immigrant workers in Beijing

to stand in a pond in order to raise the water in the pond by one meter—an accomplishment the artist admitted as an "action of no avail," yet poetic justice for the government not acknowledging the needs of its people.

Zhang Huan, To Raise the Water Level in a Fishpond.August 15, 1997. Performance documentation (middle-distance detail), Nanmofang

fishpond, Beijing, China. C-print on Fuji archival paper, 60 × 90".Courtesy of Zhang Huan Studio. [Fig. 12-32]


2 of 4 2 of 4

• Allan Kaprow "invented" Happenings, or events performed or perceived in more than one time and place. He was inspired by the work of Jackson

Pollock. Household involved only participants, no

spectators; women built a nest and licked jam off a wrecked car that men eventually destroyed with sledgehammers.

Allan Kaprow, Household.1964. Licking jam off a car hood, near Ithaca, New York. Cornell University Library.

Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections. Photo: Sol Goldberg. [Fig. 12-33]


3 of 4 3 of 4

• Marina Abramović and Uwe Laysiepen (formerly Ulay) performed primarily using their bodies. In Imponderabilia, they stood naked and

less than a foot apart at the entrance to the gallery so people had to choose which body to face as they passed through.• The performance was halted after 90

minutes when police arrived.

Marina Abramović and Ulay, Imponderabilia.1977. Performance at the Galleria Communale d'Arte Moderna, Bologna, Italy.

Abramovic: © 2015 Marina Abramovic. Courtesy of Sean Kelly Gallery/(ARS), New York. Ulay: © 2015 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn. [Fig. 12-34]


4 of 4 4 of 4

• Abramović has continued her performance work solo. The House with the Ocean View was a

living installation with three open rooms suspended 6 feet above the gallery floor where the artist drank water, used the toilet, slept, and hummed as well as engaged in silent "energy dialogues" with the audience.

Marina Abramović, The House with the Ocean View—Nov. 22 9:54 am, 2002. Living installation.

November 15–26, 2002. Sean Kelly Gallery, New York. © 2015 Marina Abramovic. Courtesy of Sean Kelly Gallery/(ARS), New York.

[Fig. 12-35]

The Critical ProcessThe Critical ProcessThinking about SculptureThinking about Sculpture

• Over the River by husband-and-wife duo Christo and Jeanne-Claude was proposed as a temporary 6-mile-long installation of fabric panels. The work could be viewed from both sky

and river level.• An Environmental Impact Statement

was required for this work—the first of its kind for art.

Christo, Over the River, Project for the Arkansas River, State of Colorado.2010. Drawing in two parts (detail), pencil, charcoal, pastel, wax crayon, enamel paint,

wash, fabric sample, hand-drawn topographic map, and technical data,detail size 19 × 96" and 42 × 96".

Courtesy of Christo and Jeanne-Claude. [Fig. 12-36]

Thinking BackThinking Back1 of 21 of 2

1. Differentiate among relief, sculpture in-the-round, and sculpture as an environment.

2. Describe carving as a method of sculpture and account for its association with spiritual life.

3. Account for the popularity of molded ceramic sculpture.

Thinking BackThinking Back2 of 22 of 2

1. Describe the casting process, and the lost-wax process in particular.

2. Define assemblage and account for its association with the idea of transformation.

3. Compare and contrast installations and earthworks as environments.

4. Describe how the body becomes sculptural in performance art.

Art & Photos

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