Introduction to Sculpture
*This is a work in progress…
Resource compiled by Erin Caudullo
Artworks can be:
Sculpture is a branch of the visual arts. It involves the creation of artistic objects in three dimensions—length, width, and height. The main feature of a sculpture’s design is the way its forms extend through space. Size, texture, light and shade, and color are also important design elements. A sculpture may look exactly like a person or object or it may reflect shapes and forms that the artist invents.
Sculpture may be either in the round or in relief. A sculpture in the round stands on its own. It can be viewed from all sides. A relief is attached to a background, so it is not designed to be viewed from the back. Reliefs often decorate buildings.
Focus on Sculpture:
VIDEO: Connecting the World through Sculpture, From the Ground Up
VIDEO: Tracey Lamb, Sculpture Workshop
VIDEO: Meredith Turnbull, Making Mobiles
VIDEO: Nabilah Nordin, Making Sculptural Forms Workshop
VIDEO: Connecting the World through the Sculpture: In the Air
Sculpture resources:
Sculpture by the sea https://sculpturebythesea.com/cottesloe/education-program-overview/resources/
Sculpture Glossary
https://sculpturebythesea.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Sculpture-Glossary-2022.pdf
Working with Sculpture
https://www.getty.edu/education/teachers/classroom_resources/curricula/sculpture/background1.html
Sculpture resources:
NGA - Elements of Art: Form
https://www.nga.gov/learn/teachers/lessons-activities/elements-of-art/form.html
Sculpture Key Terms and Definitions:
Key term | Definition |
Assemblage | A method of juxtaposing found objects together to make sculptural forms. Also known as a ‘combine’ (Robert Rauschenberg) |
Carving | A method of taking away materials (subtractive process) to create a form. Traditional materials include wood, stone, and marble. Tools used for carving include a hammer and chisel |
Casting | A method of reproducing a sculpture model by creating an external mould, which is then filled with a liquid material that can harden (silicon, plaster), or molten metal (for example, bronze). Injection moulding uses the same process |
Contemporary | Belonging to the present time. Often used to identify artworks produced over the past 20 years that are innovative and different to traditional artmaking approaches |
Documented forms | A record of an artwork in any media, typically photography or video, documenting where the work existed temporarily |
In the round | A 360-degree view of a form. Used to describe a sculpture that can be viewed from all angles and sides. The opposite of relief sculpture |
Installation | A genre, or category, of art that transforms a three-dimensional space, or environment, by installing objects (sculptural elements, or mixed media) for either a temporary or permanent time, creating an immersive experience for the audience |
Modelling | A method of adding material (additive process) to create a three-dimensional form. Materials such as clay, wax or plaster are used to build up form. Modelling tools smooth, or incise (cut), the material |
Modernist art | A term used to describe a period of time between the late 19th century to the late 20th century, noted for a series of innovative Western art movements, including Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, and Pop Art |
Relief | A style of sculpture that creates a raised form from a background plane. Ancient wall carvings use this technique |
Sculptor | An artist who creates sculptures. Michelangelo (David) and Bernini (Apollo and Daphne) were famous for their marble-carved sculptures |
Sculpture | A form of art that creates three-dimensional objects. Traditional sculptural materials are stone, marble, wood, bronze, and clay. Modernist art used metal (steel, aluminium) and synthetic materials, including plastics |
Site-specific | A particular location where an artwork is produced, or exhibited, for an indefinite amount of time |
Sculpture Walk Excursion Worksheet:
Sculpture Walk Excursion Worksheet:
Sculpture Walk Excursion Worksheet:
Sculpture Exhibition resources:
Deakin University Contemporary Small Sculpture Award 2024
Deakin University Contemporary Small Sculpture Award 2023
Sculpture Exhibition resources:
Deakin University Contemporary Small Sculpture Award 2024
Sculpture Walk Excursion Worksheet:
Construction
Exploring paint and making papers to use
Sculpture creation
Photography using green screen and experimenting with camera angles
Post-production editing to remove background and add a location/setting for sculpture
Sculpture
- provide instructions on attachment techniques and some materials and see what students can create!
CARDBOARD
ATTACHMENT TECHNIQUES
Sculpture - assemblage inspired artworks
Collect found items, fill a box, glue them in, spray paint them...
Source:
James Taylor, Right in the Middle VCD resource 1 - VCV conference 2018
James Taylor, Right in the Middle VCD resource 2 - VCV conference 2018
Use cardboard for objects/industrial design chair ideation
Student examples - year 9 mask making
Year 9 sculpture folder
Photo by Caudullo, E Tate Modern UK, 2023
Photos by Caudullo, E Tate Modern UK, 2023
Carving
LET'S MAKE A SOAP CARVING
You will need:
Soap carving
Begin by blocking out
Limestone year 7
Harvesting locally sourced limestone
Mosaics year 8
Mosaics year 8
Students follow the design process to design their mosaic.
Brainstorm
Research/inspiration
Sketch
Etc
All planned and documented in their Visual Diary
Michelangelo, David, Galleria dell'Accademia Florence,
Photos by Caudullo, E, 2023
Michelangelo, unfinished works in progress, Galleria dell'Accademia Florence,
Photos by Caudullo, E, 2023
Rape of the Sabines by Giambologna
Galleria dell'Accademia Florence,
Photo by Caudullo, E, 2023
Michelangelo, La Pieta, Vatican Museum Rome,
Photo by Caudullo, E, 2023
Modelling
Sculpture - Ceramics
Introduction to ceramics
Sculpture - Wire
Sculpture - Wire
PD -
Extending practical artmaking skills – Using wire as a sculptural medium
Visual Art teachers
Creative Resource Visual arts
Learn how artists have used wire in their work, how to create a continuous line drawing, and how to manipulate the wire to create a continuous line portrait. Working with wire provides students with a great opportunity for problem solving as they consider line, space, shape, weight and balance. Aluminium wire can be easily adapted to your classroom as it's a pliable material that can be cut with scissors and is suitable for all age groups.
Watch on Clickview: https://online.clickview.com.au/share?sharecode=75b0cbb
Armature wire: https://www.zartart.com.au/product/WG901
Florist’s wire: https://www.zartart.com.au/product/WG907
Weldin
Casts & Moulds
Lorenzo Ghiberti, Gates of Paradise, Florence Baptistry, Photo by Caudullo, E, 2023
Auguste Rodin, The Thinker, Vatican Museum Rome,
Photo by Caudullo, E, 2023
Casts & Moulds
Lindy Lee Casting Reproduction https://nga.gov.au/learn/learning-resources/lindy-lee-making-connections/casting-reproduction/
Assemblage and readymades are 20th-century art forms that utilize pre-existing, non-art materials to challenge traditional artistic creation. Assemblage (coined in the 1950s) is a 3D, additive process, assembling diverse, found objects, often junk or manufactured items, into new compositions. Readymades (pioneered by Marcel Duchamp in the 1910s) are mass-produced, often unaltered items chosen by the artist and designated as art.
Marcel Duchamp
Marcel Duchamp was a pioneer of Dada, a movement that questioned long-held assumptions about what art should be, and how it should be made. In the years immediately preceding World War I, Duchamp found success as a painter in Paris. But he soon gave up painting almost entirely, explaining, “I was interested in ideas—not merely in visual products.”
Seeking an alternative to representing objects in paint, Duchamp began presenting objects themselves as art. He selected mass-produced, commercially available, often utilitarian objects, designating them as art and giving them titles. “Readymades,” as he called them, disrupted centuries of thinking about the artist’s role as a skilled creator of original handmade objects. Instead, Duchamp argued, “An ordinary object [could be] elevated to the dignity of a work of art by the mere choice of an artist.”
The readymade also defied the notion that art must be beautiful. Duchamp claimed to have chosen everyday objects “based on a reaction of visual indifference, with at the same time a total absence of good or bad taste….” In doing so, Duchamp paved the way for Conceptual art—work that was “in the service of the mind,” as opposed to a purely “retinal” art, intended only to please the eye.
What is e-waste?
Explore the following link: https://recyclecoach.com/blog/an-intro-to-e-waste-why-its-a-problem/
In small groups, research the following:
Explore:
Responding:
Choose one of the artists below to research:
Nick Gentry & his use of tech waste and obsolete items https://www.nickgentry.com/
Chris Jordan https://www.artworksforchange.org/portfolio/chris-jordan/
“Mount Recyclemore” by Joe Rush & Alex Wrekage
Identify their use of material and how they have used these to communicate a message to their audience about e-waste.
Ensure you discuss the elements and principles of art, codes and conventions of Media within your discussion.
Explore:
Task:
Collect e-waste!
Ask your family to collect their e-waste from their rooms to donate to your e-waste inquiry and art making.
Document the items that you collected in your folio with a picture and annotate your findings too.
Explore
Photography:
We have previously been learning about composition and have also explored the elements and principles through photography.
For this task, you will combine your knowledge to communicate a message to the audience.
You will create a 3-5 narrative photography series that documents the impact of e-waste.
Explore:
Plan out your possibilities for your “message”, use a storyboard, identify camera angles, use of elements and principles, etc.
Shot 1 __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Shot 2 __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Shot 3 __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Develop:
Using your collected e-waste, take photographs.
Document the following in your folio:
Examples of student work:
“These are the photos from my first photoshoot.
I found this blue usb cord that no longer works. I want to use it as a positive for how we can do better. Maybe to make the letters of the alphabet out of the cord and make a poster about recycling properly. The shiny table didn’t work well and there is a shadow too.”
“I had an old CD player that was broken so I broke it up and took photos of the board inside. It looks like a city.
I am interested in how I can use my photos to show that what we use to build our cities/modern life shouldn’t be an afterthought…”
Examples of student work:
“I found lots of old headphones at my house. Most still work but don’t connect to the newer phones or iPads that we have. I think the white of the headphones doesn't stand out enough against the plate. But it does remind me of spaghetti. Maybe a bowl would work better. I was thinking i might try to link my photos to “you are what you eat” or something like that. Like, what we use to consume doesn’t go away once the new version is out. I’m not really sure if my message is there so i’m going to see what someone else in my class thinks and see if they have ideas of how to show my idea better”.
Sculpture Powerpoint
Sculptures were made from durable materials such as limestone and slate to ensure the image would not be lost.
Ancient Egypt 3000-800BC
Classical Greek and Roman Sculpture
Byzantine and Islamic art 4th -5th Century
Ivory and metals.
Gothic Sculpture 12th - 16th Century
Modern Art movements
Surrealism -1920’s
Futurism- 1910’s
Constructivism- 1940’s
Renaissance 15th Century- 16th Century
Marble and Bronze
Where paintings and drawings are 2 Dimensional (flat), sculptures are generally 3 Dimensional .
This means that you can walk around a sculpture and see it from all perspectives.
Sculptures can be located in different ways.
Large scale sculptures are often commissioned for public spaces.
When artists want to plan a big sculpture they often make smaller model first.
This is called a Maquette
These artists have considered and played with the negative space in their work.
Sculpture is created in four basic ways:
Modelling
Casting
Construction
Carving
Modelling is an Additive process.
Clay
Plaster
Papier-mache
Casting�A mould is used to form molten and/or liquid material into a desired shape
Casting in bronze
Plaster
Wax
Casting in concrete
Construction: gluing, nailing materials together.
Driftwood
welding steel
Cardboard
Plastic recycled
Coathangers
Assemblage: assembling found objects in unique ways.
Kinetic Sculpture: movable parts (wind) Alexander Calder:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_9mYkr7T-w
Relief: attached to a surface �High Relief Bas Relief
Carving:�Subtractive process: material is removed�
Wood
Stone for longevity