The document defines and describes various types of sculpture including relief, carving, modeling, casting, assemblage, construction, installation/site specific, representational, non-objective/abstract, and kinetic sculpture. Relief sculpture protrudes from a surface, carving involves removing material, modeling uses additive processes with soft materials, and casting involves pouring liquid into a mold. Assemblage combines found objects and construction assembles materials. Installation transforms an entire space and site-specific art relies on its location.

1. Types of
Sculpture

2. Sculpture is a three-dimensional form constructed
to represent a natural or imaginary shape.
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. Relief
• A relief sculpture
protrudes out of a flat
surface, and it’s
projection into three-
dimensional space is
relatively shallow.
• The back of the relief
sculpture is not meant
to be seen; the entire
design can be
understood from a
frontal view.

4. High Relief
High Relief: The figures
in the sculpture are
dramatically raised
from the background.
They are sometimes
nearly sculpted in the
round.

5. Bas Relief
Bas Relief- (Also
referred to as low
relief.)
Characterized by
figures that are
only slightly raised
from the surface of
the background.

6. Sunken Relief
Sunken Relief:
(Also known as
incised or intaglio
relief.) Relief that is
created by having
an image carved
down below the
surface of the
sculpture.

7. CARVING
Carving is the
process of
creating a
sculpture by
cutting, chipping
away from or
otherwise
removing material
from a solid mass
using a chisel or
other carving tool.

8. Because material is taken away from the mass, carving is known
as a subtractive process for creating sculpture. The most
common materials used in carving sculptures are stone and
wood. In fact, most sculptures throughout history were made
using this method.

9. Chisels

10. Full Round/Free-Standing
Full Round-
Sculpture that exists in
three-dimensional
space. To see all parts
of the work you need
to walk around it.

11. • It inhabits three-
dimensional space
in the same way
that living things do.
• Sculpture in the
round cannot be
appreciated from
only a single
viewpoint but must
be circled and
explored.

12. Modeling is a process in which the artist uses a soft, pliable material
such as wax, clay, or plaster that is gradually built up and shaped
until the desired form is attained. Unlike carving, modeling is an
additive method, as the sculptor is continually adding material to
the form.
Modeling

13. The material may be constructed atop some sort of metal
frame or skeleton known as an armature to lend support to the
soft material, so it will be able to maintain its shape.

14. CASTING Casting is the process of filling a mold
with a liquid material or applying a
pliable material to a form and allowing
it to harden. In either case, when the
material hardens, the resulting form is
a cast.

15. Armature

16. Installation/Site Specific
Sculptural artwork that
transforms an entire space
into a work of art, is
constructed using materials
found on site or is reliant on
it’s location for meaning.
The location is part of the
artwork.

17. A sculpture that transforms an entire space into a work of art or wouldn’t
exist without the space it occupies. You need to walk through the piece to
experience it.

18. Assemblage
Assembling found objects in unique ways to create a sculpture.
A found object is anything used in a work of art that is recognizable as an
object that existed before the sculpture. Examples include trash or wood
scraps.

19. Additive processes where existing materials are attached together in some
fashion to create a sculpture. This method of production can be used to
describe the use of a number of different materials and processes including
but not limited to: weaving, welding, woodworking, blacksmithing, or
assemblage.
CONSTRUCTION

20. Non-Objective/Abstract
Art that is simplified from something in reality.
Art that has no recognizable subject matter. It is
based on the art elements and principles only.

21. Representational
Art that has recognizable subject matter and is based on
reality.

22. Kinetic Sculpture
contains moving parts and can be set in motion by air currents or a motor.

23. Post Modern Postmodern art is a body of art movements
that sought to contradict some aspects of
modernism or some aspects that emerged or
developed in its aftermath.