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European 20th-Century Sculpture
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Much of the sculpture produced in the 20th century differs radically in form and content from that made in the past. In some instances, it explores the same directions as painting, and movements in both media share the same names: cubism, futurism, constructivism, Dada and surrealism, to mention only a few. Among the dominating influences on European sculptors early in the 20th century were ancient art and African and Oceanian sculpture. Much of the latter was displayed in natural history museums in France and Germany.
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Early biomorphic sculpture—Brancusi and Modigliani
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Constantin Brancusi, born in Romania, came to Paris in 1902; works such as Ancient Figure (1908, Art Institute of Chicago) and The Kiss (1908, Philadelphia Museum of Art) show his admiration for ancient and primitive art. The Kiss, in addition, in keeping with Brancusi’s aim to “give (the viewer) pure joy,” displays a typical playful wit, as do Torso of a Young Man (1924, Hirshhorn Museum) and the totemlike Adam and Eve (1912, Guggenheim Museum, New York City). The latter two sculptures are composed of forms that, although abstract in appearance, are clearly based on male and female sexual organs. Brancusi’s reduction of forms to their essentials and his skill in bringing out the intrinsic beauty of materials—whether wood, stone, or metal—had a profound influence on 20th-century sculptors. Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani also came to Paris and there, inspired by Brancusi, studied Cycladic and primitive art. Between 1909 and 1914 Modigliani carved limestone sculptures, such as Head of a Woman (1912, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris), which, inspired by Cycladic sculpture, in turn influenced his painting.
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Cubist sculpture—Picasso
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African art was one of the sources that were fused in works by Braque and Picasso to create the cubist style. Picasso in fact did several little wood carvings in 1907 that owe a direct debt to African masks. Influenced also by Iberian sculpture, he cast small bronzes with masklike faces, such as Head of a Woman (1906-1907, Hirshhorn Museum); these show the evolution of the cubist style, which was simultaneously developing in his painting. Greater distortion is seen in Woman's Head (1909?, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York); its pinched-out facial planes make this Picasso's first thoroughly cubist sculpture. In the following years he made numerous constructions and sculptures that can be characterized as cubist, such as the sheet-metal and wire Guitar (1912, Museum of Modern Art, New York City) and the wooden Wineglass and Die (1914, estate of the artist). His later sculpture, however, was created along more traditional figurative lines, as in the bronze Man with Sheep (1944, Philadelphia Museum of Art).
During the early decades of the 20th century, numerous sculptors active in Paris were influenced by cubism, including Raymond Duchamp-Villon, Aleksandr Archipenko, and Jacques Lipchitz. All worked in somewhat representational styles, emphasizing volumetric planes, as can be seen, for example, in Lipchitz's Sailor with a Guitar (1914, estate of the artist).
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Constructivist sculpture
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Constructivism, asserting the dynamics of sculptural space rather than the immobility of mass, was a new direction that developed primarily in Russia. Its founder, initially inspired by the works of Picasso, was Vladimir Tatlin; he was renowned for the spiraling wood, iron, and glass model for his Monument to the Third International (1919-1920, Russian State Museums, Saint Petersburg). About this time, the brothers Naum Gabo and Antoine Pevsner also made constructivist sculpture in Russia; their avant-garde work did not please the Communist regime, however, and the brothers emigrated, spreading their ideas to Western Europe and the U.S.
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