How to appreciate sculpture works and why sculpture has such an important position in the history of western art

Sculpture, as a plastic art with stereoscopic vision as the carrier, is the general name of three creative methods: carving, engraving and plastic. It uses various plastic materials (such as gypsum, resin and clay) or hard materials that can be carved (such as wood, stone, metal, jade block, agate, aluminum, glass fiber reinforced plastic, sandstone and copper) to create a visible and tangible space.

By definition, we should pay attention to the spatial form, modeling style, material application and emotional expression when appreciating sculpture. Sculptures in different periods also reflect the local customs, social culture and so on, which has the significance of carrying culture.

The following will mainly show you how to appreciate sculptures in different periods from three stages: classical, modern and contemporary:

Look at the classics first:

The above pictures are basically ancient Greek and Roman sculptures, such as David and Venus. This is a traditional sculpture in the public impression of China and the West. In addition to works that show religious themes, many of them are works that show the human body.

In western sculpture, both men and women are mostly half-naked or completely naked, which gives people a strong visual impact. This is because the Greeks and Romans appreciated the burly and rounded physique of human beings, and such sculptures are rare and almost impossible to find in China. Influenced by traditional ideas, China sculptors hope to indirectly and tactfully express the beauty of the city, so that the audience can associate with it and feel the beauty.

Due to the different historical and cultural backgrounds between China and the West, Western art pays attention to realism. The golden age of ancient Greek art left us a large number of human statues, which can be described as models, not only in perfect form, but also in most cases expressed the artist's thoughts and feelings.

It is essential for people to appreciate this type of sculpture and understand its background, so as to bring it to the scene and let the audience feel the customs and national spirit of that era to the greatest extent.

The ancient Greeks were simple, but open-minded. They believe that the human body and sex are beautiful, and the unmodified nature is also beautiful. At the same time, they respect human health and beauty. Nowadays, most of the ancient Greek sculptures people see reflect the natural shape of the human body, strong muscles and appreciation of their own body shape without inferiority. The political openness in ancient Greece may have created the people's openness and unique aesthetic concept. The ancient Greeks worshipped the human body, power and nature, and their gods were idealists. They hold sports meetings at major events, and the athletes at the games are naked to show their strength and human beauty, which is the predecessor of this Olympic Games. (These students who know a little about history should all know. )

As far as the sculpture itself is concerned, the facial features are exquisite, the expression is meticulous, the human body proportion is perfect, and it is full of dynamic tension. These are beautiful from the public aesthetic point of view, which is more in line with the public aesthetic, so it is relatively easy for our ordinary audience to appreciate them.

Look at modern times again:

Alberto Giacometti (Alberto Giacometti 190 1- 1966), a Swiss artist, is the greatest and most expressive sculptor in Europe after World War II, as well as an oil painter, sketch artist and poet.

Let's look at the sculpture in the picture above. The needle tip is like a head, and the limbs are as long as silk, just like a "stick figure". According to the understanding of the general public, is this work beautiful? Does it look nice? Why do so many people in the auction house appreciate, admire and even bid hundreds of millions?

Aside from the philosophical significance of "what is beauty", the word "beauty" is very different in works of art and real life:

The ancients liked to describe the beauty of women by "closing the moon and feeling ashamed of flowers, sinking fish and falling geese". From macro to micro, people say beauty when they see blue sky and white clouds; Look at flowers and say beauty; When you see beautiful clothes, you say beautiful ... in real life, beauty is a pleasant thing.

It is said that "art comes from life, higher than life", that is, the works of art created by artists come from life, and they also pour their feelings. Some of these feelings are pleasant, of course, including anger, sympathy, sigh and other unpleasant feelings. Therefore, art can express the beauty and ugliness of reality, and even ugly things can attract people and arouse the audience's thinking through artistic processing. Therefore, in terms of artistic aesthetics, of course, we can't simply define the beauty and ugliness in life, but we should have one more level to see whether the work truly and accurately reproduces the original appearance or atmosphere of things and truly and accurately expresses the author's feelings.

When we go back to the works and re-examine, we will find that people's eyes on the works have been divorced from the simple beauty and ugliness, and then we will think about why the author represents normal people as flat, thin and broken human figures, as if they were separated from each other, like wandering ghosts, and returned to the era of giacometti's life and creation. At that time, Europe suffered from the vicissitudes of war, and people were lonely, fragile and even panicked. What he shows is a feeling of the times after World War II, and it is with this very unique artistic image that he reproduces such a feeling. Specifically, what kind of psychological collision will this feeling have when facing the audience? It is a pure communication between the audience and the work.

Therefore, to understand this type of sculpture art, we must realize that its value is not only his unique creation in formal language, but also that these works are closely related to the cultural background of a specific era, which is incomprehensible without the artist's living environment.

In addition, different from the best viewing distance of classical sculpture, many critics think that the relationship between giacometti's sculpture and space is subtle. When these "stick figures" stand in front of you, you will feel that there is always a distance between you and them, and you can't get close to them. This is the relationship between works of art and space.

Finally, look at the contemporary:

When you see these works, do you feel that you can't tell whether they are sculptures or not?

In recent years, the forms of sculpture development have become more and more diversified, and it is even difficult to distinguish what is sculpture, what is installation and what is technology ... The styles inside are also varied, which will be confusing and not pay attention to the appreciation of the public. Compared with more traditional expressions, all kinds of "strange" expressions, especially experimental expressions, confuse the audience more.

So it's hard to say whether this is a sculpture or not. How should contemporary sculpture be defined?

Borrowing the concept of "art world" from American art critic Danto, he said, "The style revolution of art has basically ended in the 1980s, and the problem of art is no longer a problem of works, but a problem of context." Sculpture gradually got rid of the restrictions of the media and became a way of discourse. What is important in contemporary sculpture is the directionality of characters in the scene, which is also the fundamental difference between it and traditional sculpture.

"Context" is also a complex system now, and it has not been fully defined, so it can be simply understood as "macro environment" (including thoughts and feelings, author's position, opinions, artistic accomplishment, hobbies, expression time, objects, cause and effect, expression fields, media … too many, so I won't repeat them one by one).

Let's take a look at the current environment, the era of life, the big explosion of science and technology, and the changes in the human field. Everything is changing rapidly. Any kind of art form and language pattern is produced and developed in the logical relationship of a specific background. Facing this complicated and changeable era, the boundaries of sculpture language are constantly expanding. We will never abandon or stick to the tradition, but we will always gain many new possibilities in the new context. Cross-border creation is now a fashionable word. All new technologies, new materials and new information should be studied and tried as long as they can provide resources for artistic creation and contribute to the full expression of art. The progress of science and technology will affect the changes of the whole social form, and art is certainly here.

It is not difficult to understand the diversified development of sculpture art by recognizing the diversified society in which human beings live. Due to the differences in individual visual experience and survival experience, the understanding of the concept of contemporary sculpture works will be very different, and even misunderstood. In fact, when watching and interpreting works, everyone starts from their own living experience, which corresponds to personal feelings and is connected with real self-awareness. Misreading is the norm. This is also a feature of many contemporary art appreciation.