Different Forms Of SculptureI have already indicated that sculpture is a form of expression which requires a high degree of technical skill, as well as an even greater sense of form than the two-dimensional media. While I do not think it would serve your particular purpose to give you a detailed account of how the varying kinds of sculpture are produced, it should be of some value to take a quick look at them. When you appreciate the great patience and technical expertness requisite to producing a work of art by a sculptor, you can see why examples of fine sculpture are relatively scarce and not to be expected at bargain prices. Of course, the appeal to your eye and "A.Q." remain prime criteria.
Wood sculpture, of course, implies at once a high degree of skill with tools. For what the artist is actually doing is carving his final image from a block of wood with a sharp tool, known as a gouge. The woods usually employed are English oak, yellow pine, limewood, and sweet chestnut. You will also find many sculptors who use the more difficult woods, such as teak and mahogany. But it is plain that, whether it be an early American cigar store Indian or a portrait in wood by Leonard Baskin, wood sculpture is simply a piece of wood carved by hand. In fact, the Latin verb sculpere, origin of the modern word sculpture, has only a single meaning: to carve. Of recent years there has been a great rebirth of wood carving among sculptors, and you will see many examples of it in galleries and in contemporary exhibits at museums, schools, etc. Stone sculpture, like wood sculpture, is exactly what the name implies. The artist takes a block or piece of stone and hews his imagined concept out of this natural medium. However, often the artist will produce a model in clay or plaster, and turn this over to what are known as "carvers," who copy the original model in the final stone form. Many people feel that this transition through a second set of hands causes a loss of intimacy-a lessening of the fire and intensity that an artist gives to his work in the creative process when he forms the work directly out of the stone with his own hands and with his own tools. Terra cotta is still being used today by many sculptors, as it has been for thousands of years from the time of early civilizations in Egypt, India, China. You will find beautiful examples of terra cotta all the way from della Robbia to contemporary pieces; and much of our American primitive sculpture, commonly known as pre-Columbian, is terra cotta: simply a mixture of clay, fired in a kiln until it is hard. You might term it unglazed ceramic. |