Types of Sculpture

Types of Sculpture

Sculpture is a three-dimensional form constructed to represent a natural or imaginary shape.

A sculptor is a person obsessed with the form and shape of things, and it’s not just the shape of one thing, but the shape of anything and everything: the hard, tense strength, although delicate form of a bone; the strong, solid fleshiness of a beech tree trunk.

–Henry Moore

Relief• A relief sculpture

protrudes out of a flat surface, and it’s projection into three-dimensional space is relatively shallow.

• The back of the relief sculpture is not meant to be seen; the entire design can be understood from a frontal view.

High Relief

High Relief: The figures in the sculpture are dramatically raised from the background. They are sometimes nearly sculpted in the round.

Bas ReliefBas Relief- (Also referred to as low relief.)

Characterized by figures that are only slightly raised from the surface of the background.

Sunken Relief

Sunken Relief: (Also known as incised or intaglio relief.) Relief that is created by having an image carved down below the surface of the sculpture.

CARVINGCarving is the process of creating a sculpture by cutting, chipping away from or otherwise removing material from a solid mass using a chisel or other carving tool.

Because material is taken away from the mass, carving is known as a subtractive process for creating sculpture. The most common materials used in carving sculptures are stone and wood. In fact, most sculptures throughout history were made using this method.

Chisels

Full Round/Free-Standing

Full Round-Sculpture that exists in three-dimensional space. To see all parts of the work you need to walk around it.

• It inhabits three-dimensional space in the same way that living things do.

• Sculpture in the round cannot be appreciated from only a single viewpoint but must be circled and explored.

Modeling is a process in which the artist uses a soft, pliable material such as wax, clay, or plaster that is gradually built up and shaped until the desired form is attained. Unlike carving, modeling is an additive method, as the sculptor is continually adding material to the form.

Modeling

The material may be constructed atop some sort of metal frame or skeleton known as an armature to lend support to the soft material, so it will be able to maintain its shape.

CASTING Casting is the process of filling a mold with a liquid material or applying a pliable material to a form and allowing it to harden. In either case, when the material hardens, the resulting form is a cast.

Armature

Installation/Site SpecificSculptural artwork that transforms an entire space into a work of art, is constructed using materials found on site or is reliant on it’s location for meaning. The location is part of the artwork.

A sculpture that transforms an entire space into a work of art or wouldn’t exist without the space it occupies. You need to walk through the piece to experience it.

Assemblage Assembling found objects in unique ways to create a sculpture.

A found object is anything used in a work of art that is recognizable as an object that existed before the sculpture. Examples include trash or wood scraps.

Additive processes where existing materials are attached together in some fashion to create a sculpture. This method of production can be used to describe the use of a number of different materials and processes including but not limited to: weaving, welding, woodworking, blacksmithing, or assemblage.

CONSTRUCTION

Non-Objective/AbstractArt that is simplified from something in reality.

Art that has no recognizable subject matter. It is based on the art elements and principles only.

RepresentationalArt that has recognizable subject matter and is based on

reality.

Kinetic Sculpturecontains moving parts and can be set in motion by air currents or a motor.

Post Modern Postmodern art is a body of art movements that sought to contradict some aspects of

modernism or some aspects that emerged or developed in its aftermath.