Architecture Art or Science?

12.1 Distinguish sculpture as three-dimensional att that viewers eacamine from multiple perspectives.

12.2 Compaze examples of freestanding and relief sculpture.

12.3 Describe additive, subtractive, and constructive techniques used to make sculprure.

12.4 Identify materials used in sculpture including kinetic and mixed media works.

12.5 Discuss the use of ins[allation and site-specific as ro transform their surroundings.

Most viewers who approach Martin Puryear’s work

C.F.A.O. (fig. 12.1, lefr) will first see a dizzying welter

of wood pieces, stacked in a loose network and glued

together, axop an old wheelbarrow. Mostly unpainted,

the stack of pieces seems to have a rectilinear organiza-

cion, but it is coo dense to see through. It is also, ac 8

feet 5 inches, rather tall. It looks as if someone may

have thought of a unique way of bringing home the

day’s purchases from the lumber yard.

Buz if we walk around is and look from the

other side (fig. 12.1, right), we see the reason for the

apparent density of the work: a large, curving shape,

based on an elongated African mask, chat the aztist

painted white. Cleazly, in order to see and grasp this

work, we must walk around it and e~camine it from

various angles.

As C.F.A.O. illustrates, sculpture is a work in three

dimensions: It has height, breadth, and depth. It thus

exists in space, as we do. As we look ac a sculpture, the

total experience of the piece is the sum of its masses,

surfaces, and profiles. In this chapter we will consider

the two main types of sculpture—freestanding and

relief—and expbre the various methods and materials

used to create them.

(G~-{Listen to the chapter audio on myartslab.com

Freestanding and Relief Sculpture Sculpture meant to be seen from all sides is called in-

the-round, or freestanding. As we move around it,

our experience of a sculpture is the sum of iu various

aspects. A single photograph shows only one view of

a sculpture under one kind of light, thus, we receive

only a limited impression of a sculpture unless we can

see many photographs oy better yet, a video; or best of

all, view the piece ourselves.

A sculpture that is not freestanding but projects

from a background surface is in relief. In low-relief

(sometimes called bas-relied sculpture, the projec-

tion from the surrounding surface is s

shadows are minimal. Coins, for exaR

low-relief sculpture stamped from mo

in the art of coin design was reached

Sicily during the classical period of

The Apollo coin (fig. 12.2), shown h

than actual size, has a strong presence

in low relief and very small.

Some of the world’s best and r

relief sculptures are found at the to

Wat in Cambodia. This vast temple

center of the Khmer empire in the

Here Kluwer kings sponsored an ex

of sculpxure and archi~ecmre. With

188 CHAPTER 12 SCULPTURE

of the complex, carvings aze in such delicare low relief that they seem more like paintings than sculpture. One scene, Army on the March (fig. 12.3), depicts a king’s army commanded by a prince. The rhythmic pattern of the spear-carrying soldiers contrasts with the curv- ing patterns of the jungle foliage in the background. The soldiers and background provide a setting for the prince, who stands with bow and azrow poised in his carriage on the elephant’s back Intricate detail covers entire surfaces oFrhe stone walls.

In high-relief sculpture, more than half of the nao- ural circumference of the modeled Form projects from the surrounding surface, and figures aze ohen subs[an- tially undercut.