Kategoria BISAC: Art >> Sculpture & Installation

In Pygmalion in Bavaria, Christiane Hertel introduces the sculptor Ignaz Gunther, placing him in the historical context of Bavarian Rococo art and Counter-Reformation religious visual culture. She also considers the remarkable aesthetic appeal of Gunther's oeuvre--and connects it to the eighteenth-century art theory that focused on sculpture and the creative paradigm of Pygmalion. Through this interweaving of contexts and discourses, Hertel offers insights into how Rococo art's own critical dimension positions it against the Enlightenment and introduces a particular notion of...

Before Writing gives a new perspective on the evolution of communication. It points out that when writing began in Mesopotamia it was not, as previously thought, a sudden and spontaneous invention. Instead, it was the outgrowth of many thousands of years' worth of experience at manipulating symbols.

In Volume I: From Counting to Cuneiform, Denise Schmandt-Besserat describes how in about 8000 B.C., coinciding with the rise of agriculture, a system of counters, or tokens, appeared in the Near East. These tokens--small, geometrically shaped objects made of...

As an artist, Edgar Degas (1834-1917) defies easy description. Allied with the French impressionists through his commitment to portraying modern life, he also took an independent course, preferring line over color and the visible brushstroke, and working in a studio instead of out-of-doors. He is perhaps best known as a painter, but his most widely known work is a sculpture, Little Dancer Aged Fourteen. Executed in wax, near life-sized, dressed in a ballerina's tutu, with real ballet slippers and real hair, the sculpture caused a sensation when it was exhibited in 1881. It is the...

The celebrated Spanish sculptor Juan Munoz (1953-2001) died at the height of his powers, when he was considered "one of the most complex and individual artists working today" (Guardian). His challenging, enigmatic works almost inexorably draw in viewers. "The spectator," Munoz said about his installations, "becomes very much like the object to be looked at, and perhaps the viewer has become the one who is on view."

This handsome book, distinguished by more than 30 stunning photographs, documents a group of Munoz installations at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute....

The Greek-American artist Kosta Alex (1925-2005) initially trained in figure sculpture in Manhattan. In 1947 he moved to Paris, where he mingled with and exhibited alongside the avant-garde artists of his day. His interest in the flattening of forms led him to create his first series of decoupage-collages in about 1950. Like many other artists of the time, he was drawn to using humble, utilitarian materials such as corrugated cardboard, packaging, newspapers, magazines, wallpaper, timetables, lists, maps, and other scraps culled from daily urban life. He integrated these elements into his...