Henry Moore was a British sculptor obsessed with form and shape in everything he observed. Sculpture is the art of carving, casting, modeling, or assembling materials into three-dimensional figures. There are two main types of sculpture - subtractive, which involves carving away material, and additive, which involves modeling or constructing. Sculptors use many different materials like stone, wood, clay, and metal, as well as modern materials like plastic and chocolate. Contemporary sculptors also work in constructed sculpture, assemblage, kinetic sculpture, and light sculpture.

1. SCULPTURE

2. A sculptor is a person obsessed
with the form and shape of
things, and it’s not just the shape
of one thing, but the shape of
anything and everything: the
hard, tense strength, although
delicate form of a bone; the
strong, solid fleshiness of a beech
tree trunk.
–Henry Moore

3. Henry Moore [British, 1898–1986], Reclining Figure: Angles, 1979.

4. Sculpture
Sculpture - The art of carving,
casting, modeling, or assembling
materials into three-dimensional
figures or forms
Relief sculpture
 Bas-Relief or low relief
 High Relief
 Freestanding sculpture

5. Subtractive and Additive
Types of Sculpture
Subtractive Process - Carving,
unwanted materials are
removed.
Additive Process - Modeling,
Casting, Construction

6. Mass: a solid, three-
dimensional form that has
weight and takes up real
space
Voids: the empty spaces
between the masses of
sculpture

7. Carving
Carving - removing
portions of a block of
materials to create a
form.
Can use stone, wood,
ivory, chocolate…

8. MICHELANGELO. The Cross-Legged Captive (c. 1530–1534).
Marble. H: 7’6 1⁄2”.

9. Modeling
Modeling - using a pliable
materials such as clay or
wax the artist shapes the
material into a 3D form.
Can be done by hand or
tools.

10. Casting
Casting - liquid metal material is
poured into a mold to create a
form.
Mold - the form into which the
material is poured and with imparts
the shape.
 Any material that hardens can be
used for casting.
 One of the oldest and most
common is Bronze.

11. LOUISE BOURGEOIS. Portrait of Robert (1969). Cast
bronze with white patina.

12. The Lost-Wax Technique
Lost-Wax Technique
1. The artist creates a form and them from this form a mold
is created by covering the shape usually in plaster or
resin.
2. The inside of the mold is is then filled or covered with
wax.
3. The wax is removed and covered in a sandy mixture of
silica, clay and plaster to create a investiture.
• Investiture - is a fire resistant mold into which the
liquid metal will be poured.
1. The wax is heated and pour out of the now sold
investiture and replaced with the liquid metal.
2. The finished metal sculpture is removed from the
investiture, and burnished.
• Burnished - treated chemically to take on a texture
and color.

14. EDGAR
DEGAS. The
Little Dancer,
14 Years Old
(1880–1881).
Bronze.

15. SHERRIE LEVINE. Fountains after Duchamp (1991). Bronze. Installation
view at Sherrie Levine Exhibition in the Zürich Kunsthalle (2.11.1991–
3.1.1992), Zürich, Switzerland.

16. Casting of Human Models

17. Robert Gober, American, born 1964
Untitled (Long Leg), 1990–93

18. Types of Materials
 Stone
 Wood
 Clay
 Metal

19. Stone
 Stone is extremely hard
 It is also very durable
 Appropriate for monuments and
statues
 Stone tools include the chisel,
mallet, and rasp.
 Artists also use contemporary
power tools

20. LOUISE BOURGEOIS. Eyes (1982).

21. Wood
 Wood can be carved, scraped, drilled,
and polished molded and bent.
 Different woods have a different
hardnesses.
 Wood appeals to sculptures because of
its grain, color, and workability.
 Wood is easier to carved than stone.
 Tensile strength - The inherent strength of
a material.

22. Poro Secret
Society
mask
(Kagle).
Liberian,
Dan people.
Wood.

23. Clay
 Clay is more pliable than stone or
wood
 Clay is not very strong.
 Nor is permanent.
 Armature - an inner skeleton
normally made of metal used to
help give clay additional
strength.

24. Robert Arneson. Brick Bang. 1976.

25. Metal
 Metals can be cast, extruded,
forged, stamped, drilled, filed, and
burnished.
 Cast bronze sculptures
 Direct-metal sculptures -
Assembling sculpture by welding,
riveting, and soldering.
 Patinas - the colors created on
bronze due to oxidation.

26. RICHARD SERRA. Installation view,
Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain.

27. Modern and Contemporary
Materials and Methods
Throughout history sculptures have
searched for new forms expression.
• Constructed sculpture
• Assemblage
• Readymades
• Mixed media
• Kinetic sculpture
• Light sculpture
• Land art

28. Constructed sculpture
PABLO PICASSO. Mandolin and Clarinet (1913). Wood
construction and paint.

29. Constructed sculpture
 The artist “builds” the sculpture
 Materials could include, sheet
metal, cardboard, celluloid, or
wire
 Some artworks are lighter than
those from stone or wood
 Unorthodox materials can also be
used

30. Assemblage
A form of constructed sculpture
 Pre-existing or found objects take
on a new form as artworks
 Novel combinations that take on a
new life and meaning
 One of the best-known examples is
Picasso’s Bull’s Head

31. PABLO PICASSO. Bull’s Head (1943).
Bronze cast of parts of a bicycle.

32. Mixed Media
Mixed Media - Use materials and
ready-made or found objects that
are not normally elements of a work
of art.
 Artists, such as Rauschenberg (see
Ch. 20), may attach other materials
to their canvasses.
 What might be some the materials
you could use in a Mixed Media
sculpture?

33. Robert Rauschenberg, Monogram
(1955-1959) Freestanding Combine

34. SIMON RODIA. Simon Rodia Towers in Watts
(1921–1954)

35. Kinetic Sculpture
Kinetic sculpture - Sculptures that move,
art + action. Example: the mobile.
Forms of movement might include:
 Wind
 Magnetic fields
 Jets of water
 Electric motors
 The intensity of light
 Human manipulations

36. GEORGE RICKEY. Cluster of Four Cubes (1992).
Stainless steel.

37. Light Sculpture
 Light and its reflections have
always been an important
elements in sculpture (and art!)
 However, “light sculpture” is a
20th-century artform
 What are the physical
psychological and physical
effects of color and the creation
of illusion?

38. Dan Flavin installation in Marfa,
TX

39. Other Materials
Sculpture today uses not only
traditional materials, but also
materials that have never been
used before.
Example: beeswax and
microcrystalline wax, chocolate,
Styrofoam, etc…

40. Marc Quinn Self 1991 blood stainless steel
perspex refrigeration

41. JANINE ANTONI. Chocolate Gnaw (1992). Chocolate
(600 lb before biting), gnawed by the artist.

42. Chapman Brothers Tragic Anatomies

43. SYLVIE FLEURY. Dog Toy 3 (Crazy Bird)
(2000). Styrofoam, paint.

44. THANK
YOU FOR
LISTENING!

45. THE END!