Twentieth-century European Sculpture | DMA Staging Content Management System

GENERAL DESCRIPTION

During the first part of the 20th century, European sculpture was radically transformed. No longer anchored within a singular, classical tradition, sculptors experimented with diverse combinations of volumes, materials, colors, and spaces. Relinquishing the formal and traditional representation of the human body, Auguste Rodin dominated early 20th-century sculpture through his emphasis on expression, volume, light, and shadow. Rodin's iconoclastic sculptures both relied upon 19th-century romantic art, with its tormented passions and tragic sense of history, and anticipated abstract art, through swiftly modelled forms which suggest, rather than define, the human figure. Lumpy, distorted, askew from a central balance, wavering or surging like flames, Rodin's heroic sculptures embody struggle, defiance, and yearning.

Many artists followed in his steps. Emile-Antoine Bourdelle, one of Rodin’s pupils, worked in an even more expressive manner. Influenced by classical Greek sculpture, Aristide Maillol, however, returned to a more balanced representation of the female body, favoring volume over expression. Maillol's serene, stable Flora (1960.70) based on classical prototypes, belongs to a different realm of the imagination. Artists such as Constantin Brancusi abandoned almost any reference to classical representation. Brancusi sought to reach the purest and simplest volumes possible, using traditional materials like bronze and stone but juxtaposing them in a new way. Jacques Lipchitz, influenced by cubism, retained references to the human figure but reassembled them in a combination of planes and volumes. Organic associations are visible in the abstract work of Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore. Hepworth's sculptures translate landscape into monumental abstractions, as Moore did for the human figure. Moore's fusion of landscape and the human form is a counterpoint to more purely abstract works, like Naum Gabo's Constructed Head (1981.35), which uses the new medium of celluloid or Jean Arp's Classical Sculpture (1966.13.FA), which subtly modulates Greek composition into abstract form. During this time, borders between the arts became blurred. A painter, Ben Nicholson, created volumes of pure whiteness animated only by geometric low reliefs and shallow shadows.

Adapted from

DMA gallery label, Fall 2010.
DMA thematic label copy, Ancient Mediterranean and European Art, n.d., Education files.

NOTES

Deleted TMS tags linking this CC to Maillol's Flora and Nicholson's 1936(white relief).

This note was marked complete during the summer of 2015, but now contains text pulled from a source found in the education files. I am marking the noteas incomplete, EAS, 9/2015.

Revised the text and am re-marking as #draft- June 16, 2016- because the changes were significant enough to warrant rerouting.

The rule is only linking to a single object as of November 5, 2015. Something is wrong with the way I attempted to add the Nicholson to the other objects.

Rule as shown June 2016-

Apply to objects where classification_name equals sculpture and department_id equals 4 and date_begin gte 1890 or number equals 1963.77.FA

I am removing this rule for now because it is still only connected to a single object. I am replacing the rule with a rule that links the content to the named constituents.

POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS- use object name-sculpture instead of classification. Or use both classification OR sub_classiification as sculpture.

Changed rule January 2017 to link to objects by specific constituents rather than the constituent records.- Rule reaches 92 objects 1/28/2017

ASSOCIATED CONTENT CHUNKS

AUDIO ASSETS

VIDEO ASSETS

IMAGE ASSETS

WEB RESOURCES

ARCHIVAL RESOURCES

FUN FACTS

TEACHING IDEAS

RULES

Set operator as or

Apply to objects where constituent_id equals 458

Apply to objects where constituent_id equals 98679

Apply to objects where constituent_id equals 1300

Apply to objects where constituent_id equals 914

Apply to objects where constituent_id equals 901

Apply to objects where constituent_id equals 1356

Apply to objects where constituent_id equals 3112

Apply to objects where constituent_id equals 1860

Apply to objects where constituent_id equals 2099

Apply to objects where constituent_id equals 1453

General Description

During the first part of the 20th century, European sculpture was radically transformed. No longer anchored within a singular, classical tradition, sculptors experimented with diverse combinations of volumes, materials, colors, and spaces. Relinquishing the formal and traditional representation of the human body, Auguste Rodin dominated early 20th-century sculpture through his emphasis on expression, volume, light, and shadow. Rodin's iconoclastic sculptures both relied upon 19th-century romantic art, with its tormented passions and tragic sense of history, and anticipated abstract art, through swiftly modelled forms which suggest, rather than define, the human figure. Lumpy, distorted, askew from a central balance, wavering or surging like flames, Rodin's heroic sculptures embody struggle, defiance, and yearning.

Many artists followed in his steps. Emile-Antoine Bourdelle, one of Rodin’s pupils, worked in an even more expressive manner. Influenced by classical Greek sculpture, Aristide Maillol, however, returned to a more balanced representation of the female body, favoring volume over expression. Maillol's serene, stable Flora (1960.70) based on classical prototypes, belongs to a different realm of the imagination. Artists such as Constantin Brancusi abandoned almost any reference to classical representation. Brancusi sought to reach the purest and simplest volumes possible, using traditional materials like bronze and stone but juxtaposing them in a new way. Jacques Lipchitz, influenced by cubism, retained references to the human figure but reassembled them in a combination of planes and volumes. Organic associations are visible in the abstract work of Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore. Hepworth's sculptures translate landscape into monumental abstractions, as Moore did for the human figure. Moore's fusion of landscape and the human form is a counterpoint to more purely abstract works, like Naum Gabo's Constructed Head (1981.35), which uses the new medium of celluloid or Jean Arp's Classical Sculpture (1966.13.FA), which subtly modulates Greek composition into abstract form. During this time, borders between the arts became blurred. A painter, Ben Nicholson, created volumes of pure whiteness animated only by geometric low reliefs and shallow shadows.