Sculpture

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Abstract sculpture

American sculpture began developing along more abstract lines during the 1930s when artists came in contact with contemporary European work, either directly or through photographs. Alexander Calder, for example, was inspired by the Dutch painter Piet Mondrian to make abstract sculpture and paint it in pure colors. Calder became internationally famous for his “mobiles,” or moving works, and “stabiles,” which are stationary. David Smith saw pictures of welded sculpture by Picasso and the Spanish artist Julio González and created welded steel works such as Hudson River Landscape (1951, Whitney Museum, New York City). His Cubi series, such as Cubi I (1963, Detroit Institute of Arts), comprises large-scale works inspired by cubism; they show Smith's manner of polishing and then abrading the stainless steel surface with an allover calligraphic design to reflect light.

In the 1930s Joseph Cornell came under the influence of surrealist art and developed his 3-dimensional, painted, shadow-box sculptures, mysterious assemblages of heterogeneous objects. In contrast to these are Louise Nevelson's assemblages—large, monochromatic, abstract constructions that are frequently designed to form wall environments. They are made of utilitarian objects—typically, discarded fragments of furniture—contained within boxlike wooden frames. Isamu Noguchi's elegantly simple works combine European abstraction with traditional Japanese forms.

Reuben Nakian, who turned from a figurative to a quasi-abstract style in the 1940s, worked both in metals and terracotta, basing his sculptures largely on mythological subjects. Other sculptors who worked in abstract styles are Richard Lippold, known for his wire and metal hanging constructions, and Harry Bertoia, who used thin steel rods, assembled so as to vibrate. Theodore Roszak made free-form constructions of steel, brazed with other metals, such as Thorn Blossom (1948, Whitney Museum); and Herbert Ferber, influenced by abstract expressionism, created a large metal construction, And the Bush Was Not Consumed (1951), for the facade of B'nai Israel Synagogue, Millburn, New Jersey. Ferber's work was an early example of the modern revival of sculpture combined with ecclesiastical architecture. Seymour Lipton has produced biomorphic sculpture composed of brazed metal sheets, such as Jungle Bloom (1954, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut), and Mark di Suvero is known for his enormous outdoor constructions, sometimes employing steel I beams, as in Ik Ook (1971-1972, private collection), and movable elements.

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Assemblages and junk sculpture

Many sculptors have produced both abstract and representational works by means of assemblage, employing junk and found objects; frequently, a total environment has been created, large enough to allow the spectator to move within the work. Junk, first used by the Dadaists early in the 20th century, became the basis of expressive sculptures by such artists as Richard Stankiewicz during the 1960s. In this decade pop art also became prominent, initiated in the U.S. by such artists as Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, George Segal, Marisol Escobar, Red Grooms, Claes Oldenburg, Edward Kienholz, and Lucas Samaras. Later Duane Hanson began working in this vein.

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Rauschenberg introduced what he called “combine paintings,” later examples of which have the three-dimensionality of sculpture. In these, junk and found objects are incorporated onto the canvas surface. A compelling example of such work is Monogram (1955-1959, Moderna Museet, Stockholm), a construction combining a stuffed Angora goat, an automobile tire, a tennis ball, and hinged wooden doors covered with abstract expressionist brushwork. Johns, a disciple of Duchamp, did a bronze cast of beer cans, Painted Bronze (1960, private collection), posing the aesthetic problem of transposing mundane objects to the realm of art. Frequently using his friends as models, Segal builds white plaster figures engaged in commonplace activities. A quiet classicism characterizes such evocative sculptures as The Diner (1964-1966, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota). Marisol (as she is known) makes assemblages with wood, paint, and other materials such as pairs of shoes. Grooms builds huge environmental constructions, such as the delightful Ruckus Manhattan (1975-1976, Marlborough Gallery, New York City). Oldenburg, turning his talents to replicating food in painted plaster, creates humorous pop objects such as Dual Hamburger (1962, Museum of Modern Art). Oldenburg has often translated his earlier, rigid sculptures of objects such as light switches into soft vinyl copies.

Kienholz's mixed-media compositions, such as The State Hospital (1964-1966, Moderna Museet) with its representation of bedridden patients, graphically call attention to ugly aspects of contemporary society. Samaras too has constructed disturbing—but visually compelling—works, such as The Chair (1965, Smart Gallery, University of Chicago), menacingly covered with thousands of pin points. Hanson's fiberglass and polyester figures are uncannily lifelike; he has moved from essentially satirical portrayals of obese shoppers and tourists to more straightforward renderings of workers and other ordinary Americans.

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Earthworks

During the late 1960s a number of American sculptors became involved in the creation of earthworks. Among these artists were Robert Morris, Michael Heizer, and Robert Smithson; all abandoned their studios for outdoor investigations of geologic or mineral matter. An impressive project in this genre is Smithson's Spiral Jetty, a 4.6-m (15-ft) wide spiral composed of rock, salt crystals, earth, and algae, extending 457 m (1500 ft) into Great Salt Lake, Utah. Completed in 1970, this work is no longer visible, having been submerged by natural flooding.

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Recent Trends

Since the 1960s, sculptors have continued to work in a variety of media and styles. Anthony Caro, in England, creates powerful metal constructions, which generally have a horizontal axis. Americans working in metal on a monumental scale include George Rickey, who composes delicate stainless steel structures set into motion by the wind, and Richard Serra, who builds enormous outdoor structures of steel, such as the 61-m (200-ft) St. John's Rotary Arc (1980) at the New York City exit from the Holland Tunnel under the Hudson River. Working with artificial light are the American sculptors Chryssa, who uses neon tubes, and Dan Flavin, who defines spatial voids through the use of fluorescent tubing.

Other American artists, such as Donald Judd and Sol LeWitt, produce works through the repetition of identical units—precise, simple forms—in absolute symmetry. Judd, a minimalist, works with solid forms, as in Untitled (1965, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris); LeWitt, a pioneer of conceptualism, creates cubelike empty spaces defined by slim outlines composed of aluminum, as in Nine-Part Modular Cube (1977, Art Institute of Chicago). Conceptualism, an important current throughout the 1970s, was strongly influenced by the work and writings of Duchamp. Aiming to give aesthetic precedence to the artist's ideas, conceptualism sometimes dispensed with substantial works altogether, grading into performance art. The most influential contemporary conceptualist was the German Joseph Beuys, whose works satirized postwar German society and recalled his experience as a downed Luftwaffe pilot during World War II, and who was a popular public performer as well.

During the 1980s and 1990s, sculptors began moving away from the austerity of minimalism and conceptualism. Organic and eccentric forms began to reappear, a tendency known as postmodern or postminimalist sculpture. Figurative motifs could be seen in the simple, small-scale works of the American Joel Shapiro. Another American, Nancy Graves, was noted for her whimsical, brightly-colored open-work assemblages.

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