Lesson 5A: Sculpture and Site-Specific Art

Relief Sculpture

A sculptural artwork in which figures or images project to varying degrees from a two-dimensional plane (such as wood or marble)

Low Relief / Bas Relief

Which does not project significantly from the background picture plane surface - the relief is shallow and a bit more flattened

High Relief

in which the figures and object project dramatically from the background picture plane surface.

Free-Standing Sculpture

That is carved or cast in the round, unconnected to a wall, and thereby capable of being viewed in its entirety by walking around it.

Subtractive Process

An artistic process in which material is removed

Additive Process

An artistic process in which material is added or built up.

Carving

A sculptural process in which the artist begins with a block of material and cuts portions of it away until the desired form is created.

Modeling

the process of shaping a pliable material into a three-dimensional form.

Casting

The process of creating a sculptural form by pouring a liquid material into a mold, allowing the material to harden, and then removing the mold.

Mold

a pattern or matrix for giving form to molten or liquid material.

Assemblage

A form of constructed sculpture in which preexisting - or found - objects are integrated by the sculptor into novel combinations.

Direct Metal Sculpture

A type of constructed metal sculpture that is assembled by such techniques as welding and riveting, rather than casting

Installation

An artistic medium of 3-d works that can be site-specific and transform the perception of the artistic environment.

Site-Specific Art

Artwork that is produced in or for one specific location and is not intended to be relocated.

Land Art

Artwork made form the land and natural surroundings, meant to exist as part of the landscape

Ephemeral Art

Works that have a temporal immediacy or are built with the recognition that they will disintegrate - ephemeral art is not permanent.

Kouros

Literally means “boy”, these early greek sculptures were devotional or funerary statues of young men.

Gianlorenzo Bernini, Apollo and Daphne, Marble

Edgar Degas, Small Dancer, Bronze statue, tulle tutu, satin ribbon

Marcel Duchamp, Fountain, Procelain urinal

Pablo Picasso, Mandolin and Clarinet, constructed wood sculpture

Claes Oldenburg, Soft Toilet, Vinyl soft sculpture

Robert Smithson, Spiral Jetty, Great Salt Lake, Utah, Black rocks, salt, earth, water and algae

Andy Goldsworthy, Ice Star, Cibachrome photograph of icicle sculpture

Kouros, Archaic Greece, Marble

Statue of Khafre, Old Kingdom Egypt, Diorite

Imperial Procession, from the Ara Pacis Augusae, Rome, Marble

Michelangelo, David, Marble

Auguste Rodin, The Burghers of Calais, Bronze