This document provides an overview of various sculptural techniques and forms, including: - Relief carving, sculpture in-the-round, and large-scale installations/environments that viewers can enter. - Additive processes like modeling involve shaping pliable materials like clay, while subtractive processes like carving remove material from an initial block. - Casting techniques allow sculptures to be reproduced through molds, with bronze and fiberglass commonly used materials. - Assemblage art combines found objects into new sculptural forms, while installations transform spaces in unexpected ways.

1. WORLD OF ARTWORLD OF ART
CHAPTER
EIGHTH EDITION
World of Art, Eighth Edition
Henry M. Sayre
Copyright © 2016, 2013, 2010
by Pearson Education, Inc. or its affiliates.
All rights reserved.
Sculpture
12

2. Learning ObjectivesLearning Objectives
1 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.

3. Learning ObjectivesLearning Objectives
2 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.

4. IntroductionIntroduction
1 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.

5. IntroductionIntroduction
2 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.

6. 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]

7. The Three Forms ofThe 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.

8. ReliefRelief
1 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.

9. ReliefRelief
2 of 32 of 3
• 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.

10. 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]

11. ReliefRelief
3 of 33 of 3
• 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.

12. 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]

13. 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]

14. 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.

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

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

17. EnvironmentsEnvironments
1 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.

18. EnvironmentsEnvironments
2 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.

19. 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]

20. CarvingCarving
1 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.

21. CarvingCarving
2 of 32 of 3
• 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.

22. 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]

23. CarvingCarving
3 of 33 of 3
• 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.

24. 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]

25. 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]

26. Praxiteles, Hermes and Dionysus.
ca. 330 BCE. Marble, height 7' 1". National Archaeological Museum, Athens.
© Craig & Marie Mauzy, Athens. [Fig. 12-11]

27. ModelingModeling
1 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.

28. ModelingModeling
2 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.

29. Tomb of Emperor Qin Shihuangdi.
221–206 BCE. Painted ceramic figures, life-size.
© O. Louis Mazzatenta/National Geographic. [Fig. 12-12]

30. CastingCasting
1 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.

31. 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]

32. CastingCasting
2 of 52 of 5
• 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.

33. CastingCasting
3 of 53 of 5
• 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.

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

35. CastingCasting
4 of 54 of 5
• 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.

36. 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]

37. CastingCasting
5 of 55 of 5
• 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.

38. 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]

39. AssemblageAssemblage
1 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.

40. 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]

41. AssemblageAssemblage
2 of 42 of 4
• 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.

42. 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]

43. AssemblageAssemblage
3 of 43 of 4
• 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.

44. 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]

45. AssemblageAssemblage
4 of 44 of 4
• 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.

46. 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]

47. 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.

48. InstallationsInstallations
1 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.

49. 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]

50. 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]

51. InstallationsInstallations
2 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.

52. 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]

53. 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]

54. 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]

55. EarthworksEarthworks
1 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.

56. 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]

57. Robert Smithson, Spiral Jetty.
As it appeared in August 2003.
Photo: Sandy Brooke. [Fig. 12-27]

58. EarthworksEarthworks
2 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.

59. Great Serpent Mound, Adams County, Ohio, Hopewell culture.
ca. 600 BCE–200 CE. Length approx. 1,254'.
Tony Linck/SuperStock. [Fig. 12-28]

60. Art ParksArt Parks
1 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.

61. 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]

62. 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]

63. Art ParksArt Parks
2 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.

64. 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]

65. Performance Art asPerformance Art as
Living SculptureLiving Sculpture
1 of 41 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.

66. 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]

67. Performance Art asPerformance Art as
Living SculptureLiving Sculpture
2 of 42 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.

68. 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]

69. Performance Art asPerformance Art as
Living SculptureLiving Sculpture
3 of 43 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.

70. 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]

71. Performance Art asPerformance Art as
Living SculptureLiving Sculpture
4 of 44 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.

72. 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]

73. The Critical ProcessThe Critical Process
Thinking 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.

74. 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]

75. Thinking BackThinking Back
1 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.

76. Thinking BackThinking Back
2 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.