Spinoff of this thread.
What great art, especially sculpture, should I know about?
Spinoff of this thread.
What great art, especially sculpture, should I know about?
For starters, the sculpture of Auguste Rodin.
The Runner
(The pictures make it look more “aggressive” and “raw”. In reality it is more “mild”)
The Soviets, and now the Russians have some great sculptures.
Look into the Impressionists, the Cubists (really, just Picasso and Georges Bracque) and Dada. Also Man Ray and Joan Miro.
I think illustrators get short shrift. Look at Norman Rockwell, Howard Pyle and NC Wyeth, and proceed as far as you want down that road.
Andy Warhol and Jackson Pollock did a lot to expand what people considered to be art, so check them out as well.
I love art books, art on the 'net & TV shows on art. (Recommendations will keep coming, no doubt.)
But–are there any museums in your area? Actually seeing art is better than reading about it. Traveling shows are great but permanent collections help you begin to appreciate things you might find puzzling at first. Or you’ll conclude that certain works are just not for you–that’s a valid response, too.
I’ve always been partial to Bernini.
Google “Michelangelo pieta”, and “Michelangelo David”
Canova, especially this sculpture.
You like lists? Here’s one.
How about a book?
Someday I’d like to audit an art history class, I am woefully uneducated on the subject myself.
This sculpture.
and others by Gustav Vigeland.
Wander through Dale Chihuly’swebsite.
He has installations and individual pieces all over the country.
That looks like an updated version of one of my favorite sculptures - Unique Forms of Continuity in Space, by Boccioni: Unique Forms of Continuity in Space - Wikipedia
Incredibly wonderful depiction of motion.
Oh, and an incredibly important sculpture is The Laocoon: Laocoön - Wikipedia
ETA: better article in wiki: Laocoön and His Sons - Wikipedia
This sculpture depicting an important scene in a classical myth, this ancient sculpture was unearthed in Italy in the early 1500’s, inspiring, directly and specifically, many Renaissance artists who flocked to see it.
The man was a god.
All of the Italian Renaissance artists like Raphael, Donatello, Titian, etc. Then on to the Dutch Masters like Rembrandt, Vermeer, Jan Steen, van Gogh and a host of others. And of course the Impressionists like Degas, Monet, Renoir, Cezanne, etc.
I’m agreeing with all those who mentioned Auguste Rodin. I only saw two of the same pics that mentioned “A Call To Arms”. That has been my favorite since I saw a show in Tacoma, WA. I’d be willing to kill for an honest to life repro of that one, just not in copper. I think it’s great!
Another admirer of Bernini (post #6). The Abduction of Proserpina is a favorite of mine. Here’s a close-up.
Laocoön and His Sons (post #12) is an incredible piece of sculpture.
Another one of my favorite sculptures is The Lion Monument, or The Lion of Lucerne. In A Tramp Abroad, Mark Twain praised the sculpture of a mortally-wounded lion as “the most mournful and moving piece of stone in the world.”
The only art form I’m less qualified to talk about than sculpture is dance, but here goes nothing.
A lot of pre-20th/21st century sculpture has been covered, but I think if you’re going to approach sculpture in the last 100 years, you’ll need to be aware of Marcel Duchamp and his Readymades. Of his work, the Readymades are probably the easiest to digest. When he ventures beyond found objects, he becomes truly dense. I wrote a paper on The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even (The Large Glass), and I’m still not sure what to think of it twenty years later. Dadaism is hard to interpret, it’s probably the movement that put the most onus on the viewer, but it had an influence.
In contemporary sculpture, my current favorite is Ron Mueck. His hyper-realistic sculptures use both scale and the vulnerability of the subjects to communicate. It’s related to the work of Duane Hanson, but I think it’s the next mode of Hanson’s expression.
My third suggestion is Marisol Escobar. Her work has a certain humanity that I find compelling.
But again, I think I’m a person who doesn’t really grok the purest forms of sculpture.