9781422287132

Sculpting

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Sculpting

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Sculpting

Sara James

Mason Crest

Mason Crest 450 Parkway Drive, Suite D

Broomall, PA 19008 www.masoncrest.com

Copyright © 2015 by Mason Crest, an imprint of National Highlights, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the publisher.

Printed and bound in the United States of America.

First printing 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Series ISBN: 978-1-4222-3167-8 ISBN: 978-1-4222-3176-0 ebook ISBN: 978-1-4222-8713-2

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

James, Sara. Sculpting / Sara James.

pages cm. — (Art today!)

Includes index. ISBN 978-1-4222-3176-0 (hardback) — ISBN 978-1-4222-3167-8 (se- ries) — ISBN 978-1-4222-8713-2 (ebook) 1. Sculpture—Juvenile litera- ture. I. Title. NB1143.J36 2014 730—dc23 2014011832

Contents

1. Creating Sculpture

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2. The History of Sculpture 3. The Business of Sculpture

19 31 45 59 61 62 64

4. How Can I Get Involved in Sculpture?

Find Out More

Series Glossary of Key Terms

Index

About the Author & Picture Credits

Words to Understand commemorate: Serve as a memorial to remind people of a person or event. kinetic: Having to do with movement. political: Related to the government of a country.

immortality: Living or lasting forever. impermanence: Not lasting forever. specialized: Specifically designed to do one thing. architect: A person who designs buildings.

apprentice: A student who studies under a master of a profession. interior design: The art of decorating the inside of buildings. collaboration: Working together.

Chapter One

Creating Sculpture

S culpture is one of the oldest forms of art there is. But sculpture isn’t just an outdated art. Sculpture today makes life a little more interesting, whether you spot a giant sculpture in a city, have a mobile hanging from your ceiling, or are visiting a museum full of sculptures. TYPES OF SCULPTURE Sculpting is really just three-dimensional art. The word “sculpture” covers a lot of different techniques and materials. Sculptors have a lot of variety to choose from. The sculpture you may be most familiar with is sculpture in the round, also called a freestanding sculpture. Old Greek and Roman statues are sculptures in the round—they stand out from anything around them and

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SCULPTING

This statue of George Washington was creating as a lasting memorial to the first president of the United States.

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Creating Sculpture

aren’t attached to anything besides a base. Many of the sculptures you may find around cities that commemorate famous people are sculp- tures in the round. Some artists practice relief sculpture. They start with a flat vertical sur- face and either carve out an image or carve out the background. A bas- relief is relief sculpture with an image that pops out of the background. Think of the way a president’s head on a coin is raised up from the flat background. Sunken relief sculptures are carved into the background, so that the background is higher than the image. Kinetic sculpture is another type of three-dimensional art. Kinetic sculptures are often freestanding sculptures, but they also move. Some kinetic sculptures move with the wind, like mobiles. Others may move if someone pushes a button or turns a gear. Some kinetic sculptures move from the force of water. Fountains are examples of water sculptures. Assemblage sculpture is a popular form today. Assemblage sculp- tures are assembled; that is, they are made up of lots of different ob- jects and materials all pieced together. Modern artists can make assem- blage sculptures out of everything from seashells and beach driftwood to garbage. WHAT’S IT FOR? Sculpture has performed a lot of functions over the years. Some early sculptures (and sculptures today) were religious. Very early statues rep- resented gods. People used these sculptures to aid them in appealing to gods for help. In Christianity, sculptures of saints, the Virgin Mary, and Jesus all helped tell biblical stories, since most early Christians couldn’t read. Other early sculptures were more political . They were created in the image of powerful kings who thought they could achieve immortality . Some sculptures were used to celebrate victories in battle. Sculptures are often used as a tool to remember. Today, we erect lots of sculptures to remember famous people or events. Washington, D.C.,

SCULPTING 10 contains many sculptures that represent great presidents, like the Lin- coln Memorial, the Washington Memorial obelisk, and the Martin Luther King Memorial. Washington, D.C., also has several war memorials, like the Vietnam War and the Korean War memorials. Cemeteries are also full of sculptures meant for remembering. Grave- stone sculptures may be simple granite slabs, or relief sculptures of skulls or flowers, or tall obelisks or urns. Sculptures, like all art, also make us think deeply about important subjects. A sculpture made entirely out of plastic recyclables found in the trash is meant to make viewers consider just how much stuff we get rid of. A sculpture made out of leaves that decay over time makes us think about the impermanence of our lives. MATERIALS, TECHNIQUES, AND TOOLS Some types of artists only use a few materials. Take painters, for in- stance. Painters can choose different types of paint, but there isn’t a huge difference between watercolors, acrylics, and oil paint. The technique of each sort of paint is at least somewhat similar. Sculptors, on the other hand, can use just about any material in the world to create their art. Traditionally, sculptors used materials commonly found in nature, like stone and clay. Metals have also been a frequently used material for sculpture throughout history. Other materials include wax, wood, ivory, bone, glass, ice, and sand. Sculptors aren’t limited to the materials they can find in nature, though. Modern sculptors use all sorts of materials to make their art, like plastic, paper, and even electronics. Certain materials are used for specific types of sculpture. Some peo- ple consider pottery, which is made out of clay, to be sculpture. The clay is shaped, then fired in a kiln so that it lasts longer. Sculptures that are meant to last a very long time are often made of stone or metal. Think of the ancient Egyptians’ monuments. The Great Sphinx of Egypt is one of the largest statues in the world and was built out of limestone. The statue has lasted 4500 years!

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Creating Sculpture

Make Connections Stone sculptors know that not every kind of stone is right for every job. Certain stones are harder or softer, and are more appropriate for different sorts of sculptures. Limestone, for in- stance, is a soft stone that carves easily but doesn’t hold details

very well. Marble is a lot harder, so it’s more diff icult to carve, but it also holds details and can be polished to a shine. Granite is another popular sculpture stone, but it is a very diff icult stone to work with using normal stone-carving tools because it comes off in chunks.

There are as many sculpting techniques as there are materials, but some techniques are more popular than others. Sculptors have two ba- sic choices. They can start with an existing material and add something to it, or they can start with the material and take something away from it. For example, a stone sculpture involves chiseling away at the stone, while creating a clay sculpture usually involves adding more and more pieces of clay to the base. Taking away material is called carving. A sculptor may take a giant piece of stone and carve away pieces to make a stone sculpture of a person. Another sculptor may take a small piece of wood and carve away some of it to make a small wooden representation of a bird. Casting is a popular sculpting method that has been around for thousands of years, used mostly to make metal or concrete sculptures. Casting involves making a mold, and then using the mold to create the final sculpture. First, the sculptor creates a mold out of a soft material like clay or wax. The mold is hollow so that the sculptor can then pour hot, liquid metal into it. The sculptor lets the hot metal cool into a solid.

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SCULPTING

Creating enormous sculptures like the Gardens by the Bay in Singapore required many workers, a lot of equipment, and more than a billion dollars.

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Creating Sculpture

She then can break off the mold on the outside, leaving the hard metal statue. Constructing is a more modern type of sculptural technique. Con- structing involves joining one or more pieces of material together using glue, pins, interlocking joints, or any number of other fasteners. Con- structing allows the artist to add just about any material to the sculpture he’s creating. Different techniques and materials use different tools. Here are some of the tools artists use when making certain kinds of sculpture. Some tools are common household items, while others are very specialized pieces of equipment that cost thousands of dollars. • stone: chisels, hammer, mallet, drill and bits, sandpaper • wood: carving knives, saw, chisel, gouge, sandpaper • metal: welding torch, welding machine, soldering iron, pliers, grinder, wire brush • ice: saws, scrapers, grinders, chisels, ice pick, ice tongs, heat guns • glass: high-temperature furnace, hollow steel rod, marver, tongs, annealer Don’t forget the safety equipment! Sculpture can be one of the more dangerous forms of art to create. Sculptors wear safety goggles to pro- tect their eyes. Wood and stone sculptors wear dust masks to prevent breathing in particles of their material. Metal and glass sculptors take even more safety precautions, wearing gloves and heavy-duty aprons. THE WHERE Artists create sculptures in different settings, based on the type of sculp- ture they’re creating. An artist wouldn’t want to pour molten metal into a • clay: wire, sponges, brushes, scrapers, carving knives, stamps, pottery wheel, kiln

SCULPTING 14 mold at home! Instead, she would probably be creating her sculpture in a studio that had special equipment and lots of safety precautions. Sculptors who use less dangerous techniques may have art studios at home, or they might rent a studio in a community art space. Potters can make pieces at home, but they also must have access to a kiln so they can fire their fragile pieces into hard objects. OLD AND NEW One of the most famous sculptors of all time lived long ago, in the 1400s. Michelangelo was an Italian Renaissance sculptor, as well as a painter, architect , and writer. His work represents a lot of the old ways of making sculptures, including the materials and techniques he used. Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni was born in 1475 in Italy. A family of stonecutters raised him, so he learned about stone and carving very early on in life. He also liked to study the painters who decorated churches near where he lived. Because of his love of art and painting, he became an apprentice to a painter in Florence. But Michelangelo was destined to be more than a painter. He soon started studying sculpture at the Medici palace. The Medicis were a very powerful family in Florence, so Michelangelo had access to all the knowledge and teaching he could want. Pretty soon he was creating professional sculptures. And all this was when he was still in his early teens! Michelangelo’s sculptures tended to imitate earlier Greek and Ro- man classical styles. His figures were very muscular, and often looked like the stone had aged over time even when they were brand new. His Pieta statue of Mary and Jesus demonstrates some of his best work. He carved it out of one piece of marble. The figures barely look like they’re carved out of stone, though—the fabric, skin, and expressions of the sculpture look almost real. The Pieta now sits at St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City.