The mighty hand – The evolution of sculpture

The subjects we discussed during the second edition of this year’s summer series are presented here below in form of key words who define the evolution of sculpture. By clicking on the key words themselves and on the single words you will be redirected to external links to find out more.

An artistic movement that did not only revolutionise sculpture but art as a whole. During this second edition of summer series we discussed the topic especially in terms of the artist Joseph Beuys and his “social sculpture”.

Installations art is an artistic medium arising around the 1960ies. It completely changed sculpture and exhibition making. As popular though vert different examples we discussed Allan Kaprow, Haim Steinbach e Olafur Eliasson.

Since the beginning of the 20th century sculpture has dealt with major changes and one of those was the interest in moving sculpture. It’s called kinetic art and two popular examples we discussed are Jean Tinguely and Robert Breer.

All artistic movements after war were pretty creative in the way they reinvented art and sculpture specifically but the land artists probably beat them all: they made nature itself their medium and Robert Smithson, Richard Long and Walter De Maria are only a few of the artists we discussed during the second edition of the summer series.

Minimal art was first and foremost sculpture. Popular names brought up during the lesson at the foundation are Carl Andre, Charlotte Posenenske and Eva Hesse.

The history of sculpture is necessarily also a history of plinth. We discusses this interesting relationship focusing on Constantin Brancusi, Alberto Giacometti and Lena Henke.

In process art the the process of the making of the artwork is the most important aspect and thus often becomes the result and the work itself.

Reality as a subject is something that has always been there but with the birth of the readymade, in terms of sculpture, it really changed everything in art: Danh Vo, Claes Oldenburg and Piero Manzoni are three very different examples united by the interest in the real.

Finally, a term introduced in the recent history of art related to sculptural works and installations is “site-specific.” A site-specific work is conceived and made specifically for the place where it will be exhibited. There are a few artists who only make site-specific works, such as the legendary couple Christo and Jeanne-Claude.