Henry Moore, one of the key figures in modern sculpture. His works are usually abstraction of human figures, typically depicting female and reclining figures. He received academic art education in his early years, but the truly significant impacts on his original artistic conception are the violent passions, organic forms came from American and African native art. Moore combined the passions of primitive art with modern forms, creates his unique way of expression. Conclusively, he liberate the human figurer from surrealism and cubism conventions, emphasize his sculptures with nature curves and humanism themes. Through a closer look at Moore’s piece, The Reclining figure 1951. This research will further explore moor’s appropriation practices in native art, surrealism, classical order, industrial design, and principles technique. In order to demonstrate Moor’s appropriation as a vehicle for him to communicate with the modern art world and undertakes appropriation to create his expression. 1929, Henry Moor was inspired by a statue called ChacMool, an ancient Mexican Toltec-Maya figure in the Trocadero Museum. Under the inspiration of South American native art, Moore created his first reclining figure. The 1929 Reclining Figure in Brown Horton stone. It is one of Moore’s first sculptures to demonstrate his distinctive individual style and largely appropriated the native forms and natural curves from the ChacMool statue. Apparently, the appropriation of primitive models, non-western …show more content…
art, and a reclining gesture was to become his most frequently explored theme during his career, from the relatively realistic to the almost totally abstraction. Nerveless, in Moore’s late reclining works, The Reclining Figure 1951, a everlasting theme of primitive art and the elements from ChacMool are obvious for viewers to pick up. For examples, The foundation of Moore’s approach in the reclining figure is direct carving, organic shapes and a redefinition of space. Moore derived not only European modernism forms in this work, but also the nature forms and a exaggerated proportions that appearing in native convention. To further introduce, The Reclining Figure 1951 shows a human body in a reclining position, shares its similarity to the ChacMool statue both compositionally and esthetically. For examples, the form-line of native American art can also be seeing on moor’s piece. The Form-line is the main line that outlines the body of the object. In the Reclining Figure 1951, Moore used the from-line to define the figure’s two legs, head, and joints. The viewers can see the form-line in Moore’s piece contains its mass, and keep the figure’s body separate. It is one of the most significant elements in Moore’s approach to native and nature. Moreover, the ovoid shapes are also the most dominant shape Moore has used in his appropriation. The ovoid shapes first came from the Northwest Indian art. It is like a rounded rectangle with inner tension pushing the top to form a convex. The top side is sometimes seen as concave. These ovoid shapes in Indian culture symbolize to human parts, organic features. Distinctly, the head of Moore’s Reclining figure shares a very analogously shape with the Indian ovoid, with its rounded rectangle shape and convex in the top. Even more, The U forms are also largely used in Moore’s Reclining figure. By a closer look at the figure’s arms, Legs, and chest. The viewers can easily find the U-shapes in these body parts. To further explant, The U shapes are commonly used in South American art. As the term suggests, they resemble the letter U with ends tapering to sharp points, like the ovoid. The U forms in Moore’s piece are varied in proportions, but they all have the U shapes. The Lager U-forms are used to symbolized and to contour the subject and as part of the form line for the figure’s legs and arms. The multiple U-forms worked together, represent Moore’s sculpture in a organic and unique way.With the unfold of its native elements, abstraction forms and nature shapes before viewer’s eyes, the viewers can barely recognize this sculpture as a representation of modernity, but rather, a nature’s creation, an old stone from the river beach.The large appropriation of nature forms and curves from The ChacMool state has lead Henry Moore’s Reclining Figure runs wild. He abandoned straight lines in European sculpture conventions, in favor of curves, used a themes and shapes from nature and native art to create his piece. In another hand, Moore’s piece, the Reclining Figure 1951 not only shows his appropriation in American native art, but it is also a immediate example of his study in surrealism and constructivism.
Conclusively, the non-western art is not Moore’s only focus. In the mid of the nineteenth century, Moore became more interested in utilizing three dimensions. The pursuing of new techniques and expressive style have led him to introduce industry design, and “holes” in his
sculptures. To expound, Moore used geometric elements as a reference to create Reclining Figure 1951 both speciosity and geometrically. The composition of Reclining Figure 1951 is visually balanced. The different lines and shapes are supporting each other, and the introduced U shapes are also worked together, creates a sense of stability to the viewers. Most importantly, the utilizing of the geometrical patterns worked perfectly with the organic shapes, created Moore’s way of expression. Last but not at the least, The reclining figure 1951 is an unique evolution from his early work was the physical separation of the components of the body into two major parts. A obvious example is the open space between the figure’s upper body and legs. The use of “hole” touches on one of the most fundamental focus in Moore’s life, Space. In addition, Moore once indicated and explant the importance of utilizing dimensions and holes in his reclining figures: 'The "Festival Reclining Figure" is perhaps my first sculpture where the space and the form are completely dependent on and inseparable from each other. I had reached the stage where I wanted my sculpture to be truly three-dimensional. In my earliest use of holes in sculpture, the holes were features in themselves. Now the space and form are so naturally fused that they are one.' Apparently, the use of holes and open space is not Moore’s original idea. In the history of modern sculpture, Alberto Giacometti’s work The place at 4 A.M.1932, and Marcel Duchamp’s work, The Box of 1914 were two stunning piece which first introduced “hole” technique and challenged space conventions. However, Henry Moore was the most successful artist to work with space by using “holes” to separate the components. Since the introducing of hole technique to his work, Moore broke a the convention of sculpture, which suggest that sculptures can only exist as substance objects and surrounded by space. Create his vision of manipulate space, allows his sculptures became a part of space but no longer surrendered by space. To all appearances, the reclining figure Moore presented is a direct study of various of art forms. By the appropriation to American native art, the industrial design and the “hole” technique, Henry Moore creates his unique form of expression. Emphasize his sculpture The Reclining Figure with naive shapes, native elements and the physical separation of the components of the body as strong examples of exploring the language of sculpture.
In the Florence and the early renaissance, we have the greatest master of art like Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Sandro Botticelli and others. In this period of time the painters almost never show their emotions or feelings, they were more focused on indulging the churches and the wealthy people. In The renaissance period the art provides the work of art with ideal, intangible qualities, giving it a beauty and significance greater and more permanent than that actually found in the modern art. Florence and the early renaissance, the art become very valued where every artist was trying to create art forms consistent with the appearance of the beauty or elegance in a natural perspective. However, Renaissance art seems to focus more on the human as an individual, while Wayne White art takes a broader picture with no humans whatsoever; Wayne, modern three dimensional arts often utilizes a style of painting more abstract than Renaissance art. At this point in the semester these two aspects of abstract painting and the early renaissance artwork have significant roles in the paintings. Wayne White brings unrealistic concepts that provoke a new theme of art, but nevertheless the artistic creations of the piece of art during early renaissance still represent the highest of attainment in the history of
Three dimensional art is defined as media which “occupies space, defined through the dimensions of height, width and depth” (SAYLOR). These art works can be geometric or organic in nature (NORTON). Three dimensional art forms include sculptures, crafts and architecture. Three dimensional art form is fascinating to me because of the amount of realism and beauty it embodies, as well as for its functional and aesthetic value. For this assignment, I chose two beautiful pieces that illustrated the characteristic of three dimensional art and the processes it took to produce them. The first art work I want to analyze is a sculpture done by an Iraqi artist from Kalhu (modern day Nimrud) entitled, “Assurnasirpal II Killing Lions” (Sayre, 420).
The human form transcends throughout time persistently present in art. Dating all the way back to Paleolithic human beings our renderings of idealized forms have served many purposes. Though the Neolithic and Paleolithic purpose of these renderings is widely speculative the range of reason for these depictions ranges from idolization and worship to assertion of aristocratic and economic status even to simply serving as statements of self-expression. Amongst ruins and artifacts, sculptures of ancient cultures demonstrate the ways in which humans perceptions of what is aesthetically desirable have progressed. Two idealized sculptures the Woman from Willendorf and the Khafre statue with approximately 21,500 years separating their individual gestations this demonstrate the stylistic progression of idealized imagery through time.
Evan Penny takes a completely different approach to hyperrealism. He manipulates the space where the object resides in. This technique shows the audience that a 3D space can change with the right type of effect on a sculpture. As he distorts his works of art in the space, it has an effect with the relationship between the viewer and
Art has been the reflection, interpretation and representation of artists' beliefs and morals eternally. Various artists stand for different matters that quite possibly affect their lives, or might be of an interest to them. Norval Morrisseau is an artist that I was intrigued by his portrayal and the techniques used in his paintings. In this paper, we are going to look at the implementation of Morrisseau's painting style used to expose his philosophies of different aspects in his life.
With works in every known medium, from every part of the world, throughout all points in history, exploring the vast collection of the Museum of Modern Art was an overwhelming experience. The objects in the Department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts are an important historical collection, reflecting the development of a number of art forms in Western Europe. The department's holdings covered sculpture in many sizes, woodwork and furniture, ceramics and glass, jewelry, and tapestries. The gallery attracted my appreciation of the realistic qualities of the human body often portrayed in sculpture.
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, or LACMA as it is commonly known, is among the world’s largest art collections in North America, and to be specific enough the most prevalent artwork in the western United States (Compton 165). This massive art museum has a collection of over 100,000 artworks, which extends from the ancient times to present days (Gilbert and Mills 174). These collections, which are mainly from Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin-America and America itself, are grouped into several departments within the museums buildings, depending on the region, culture, media, and time period. This paper analyzes the different genres of art and explains the main features that make the Islamic artworks distinguish themselves as historic masterpieces, by using stylistic and interpretive analysis methods.
The Harlem Renaissance, a time of global appreciation for the black culture, was a door opening for African American women. Until then, African Americans, let alone African American women, were neither respected nor recognized in the artistic world. During this time of this New Negro Movement, women sculptors were able to connect their heritages with the present issues in America. There is an abundance of culture and history to be learned from these sculptures because the artists creatively intertwine both. Meta Warrick Fuller and Edmonia Lewis, two of the most popular sculptors of this time, were able to reflect their native heritages and the dynamics of society through their artwork.
My friends, after traveling through the Asian continent and Japan, I continued on to the Americas. The art in the Americas has three regions, North America, Central America, and South America. Each region has a very distinct aspect to their forms of art. All cultures have some kind of art. Being curious about art, I have collected samples from five different areas. The following works of art are very different from European art, but there are still some similarities. The similarities of the human spirit are evident in the following images.
‘Florated madness, liniar hysteria, strange decoratve disease, stylistic free-for-all’, such were the terms its contemporaries used to describe Art Nouveau, the first international design style. Art Nouveau was the rebellion against the entire Victorian sensibility, steeped as it was in the past. The exponents of the style hoped to revolutionize every aspect of design in order to set a standard that would be compatible with the new age. Art Nouveau was a direct descendant of the Arts and Crafts movement and influenced by celtic ornament as well as Japanese woodcut prints, all this resulted in an international style based on decoration.
Spanish painter Salvador Dali was undeniably one of the most eccentric personalities of the XX century. He is well known as a pioneer of surrealist art whose production has had a huge influence on media and modern artists around the globe . By bringing surreal elements into everyday objects he pushed surrealism forward. It is partly to his credit that surrealism is this popular today. In "M...
In the early twentieth century the Modern movement of architecture and industrial design came about. This movement was a reaction to the change within society and the introduction of new technologies. The ever changing world and technology meant artists to evolve alongside the changing world and this kind of ‘industrial revolution’ that was happening. Modernists ideas have seeped into every form of design especially architecture and design. Although most modernists insisted they were not following any style in particular, their work is instantly
Cultural and political changes such as the spread of Marxism, the rise of psychoanalytical ideas, and the growth of media in the face of technological advancement prompted many artists to reassess notions of art (Farthing). Rejecting the idea that art must realistically depict the word, many artists started to explore abstract ideas such as symbolism and focused more on the representation of emotions or personal subjects they had direct experience or interest in (MoMA). Modernist sculpture cannot be identified by one defining characteristic, rather it encompasses different art movements and represents a pivotal moment for sculptors to investigate different materials, methods of construction and formal elements of sculpture such as form, space and mass. Constantin Brancusi played a major role in developing modernist sculpture, after rejecting Rodin’s naturalism. Brancusi tried to capture the essence of the subject by distilling them down to their most refined and simplified forms. For example, he used a section of the body to represent its entirety, often focusing on the head as he felt that was the most expressive component of a human being. He also emphasized a commitment to the material’s natural properties, using a direct carving
The masculine and idealized form of the human body is an ever-present characteristic of Michelangelo’s sculpture. Many people over the years have speculated why this may be, but there has never been a definitive answer, and probably never will be. Through all of his sculpture there is a distinct classical influence, with both his subject matter and his inclination to artistically create something beautiful. In most cases, for Michelangelo, this means the idealized human figure, seeping with contraposto. This revival of classical influences is common for a Renaissance artisan, but the new, exaggerated form of the human body is new and unique to Michelangelo’s artistic style.
If modernism and postmodernism are arguably two most distinguishing movements that dominated the 20th century Western art, they are certainly most exceptional styles that dominated the global architecture during this period. While modernism sought to capture the images and sensibilities of the age, going beyond simple representation of the present and involving the artist’s critical examination of the principles of art itself, postmodernism developed as a reaction against modernist formalism, seen as elitist. “Far more encompassing and accepting than the more rigid boundaries of modernist practice, postmodernism has offered something for everyone by accommodating wide range of styles, subjects, and formats” (Kleiner 810).