Environmental sculpture
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Environmental sculpture is sculpture that creates or alters the environment for the viewer, as opposed to presenting itself figurally or monumentally before the viewer. A frequent trait of larger environmental sculptures is that one can actually enter or pass through the sculpture and be partially or completely surrounded by it. Also, in the same spirit, it may be designed to generate shadows or reflections, or to color the light in the surrounding area.[1]
Sculpture as environment
Julia M. Bush emphasizes the nonfigurative aspect of such works: "Environmental sculpture is never made to work at exactly human scale, but is sufficiently larger or smaller than scale to avoid confusion with the human image in the eyes of the viewer."[2] Ukrainian-born American sculptor Louise Nevelson is a pioneer of environmental sculpture in this sense. Busch (p. 27) also places the sculptures of Jane Frank, as well as some works by Tony Smith and David Smith, in this category. Some environmental sculpture so encompasses the observer that it verges on architecture.
A less known but more appropriate example is Athena Tacha's 2-acre (8,100 m2) park Connections in downtown Philadelphia (between 18th St. and 19th St. two blocks north of Vine St.), created as a landscape art environment after her winning a competition in 1980 (where Segal was actually one of the finalists). It was the first park designed entirely by an artist "sculpting the land" with planted terraces, rock clusters and paths (completed in 1992).
Sculpture created for an environment
A second sense of the term "environmental sculpture", with a somewhat different emphasis, is sculpture created for a particular set of surroundings. Thus, contemporary sculptor Beth Galston writes: "An environmental sculptor plans a piece from the very beginning in relationship to its surroundings. The site is a catalyst, becoming part of the creative process."[3] This is quite different from a Nevelson sculpture, which can usually be moved from place to place, like a conventional sculpture, without losing its meaning and effectiveness.
By Galston's definition, an environmental sculpture is not merely
Since the mid-seventies, French artist Jean-Max Albert worked with trellis structures, deconstructing and re-arranging the elements of surrounding architecture or including the site into the sculpture[4] with Sculptures Bachelard.
Since 1983 German artist Eberhard Bosslet makes interventions on ruins, so-called "Re/formations and side effects"; he refers to the conditions of industrial and residential buildings by white painted lines or black painted color fields. In 1999 the artist Elena Paroucheva created her concept for pylons, integrating energy networks with sculptures.http://www.art-elena.com/
Site-specific art and environmental art
The term "site-specific art" is sometimes used interchangeably with "environmental art". Louise Nevelson, for instance is a pioneer American environmental artist with sources disagreeing on classifying her work as "environmental sculpture". The terms "environment sculpture", "site-specific art", and "environmental art" have not yet completely stabilized in their meanings.
A reason for blurred definitions is that much of site-specific and environmental art was created from 1970 on for public spaces all over the United States, sponsored by federal (GSA and NEA) or state and city
See also
Topics
- Earthworks (art)
- Environmental art
- Land art (Earth art)
- Ocean art (under water art)
- Land Arts of the American West
- Natural landscape
- Site-specific art
- Rock balancing
- Sustainable art
Institutions
Projects
References
- Britannica Online: [1]"20th-century art form intended to involve or encompass the spectators rather than merely to face them; the form developed as part of a larger artistic current that sought to break down the historical dichotomy between life and art."
- ^ (Busch, p. 27)."A Decade of Sculpture: the New Media in the 1960s" (1974)
- ^ "Environmental Art".
- ^ Bruno Suner,Les sculptures de visées du Parc de La Villette, Urbanisme no 215, 1986
Sources
- Busch, Julia M. A Decade of Sculpture: the New Media in the 1960s Archived 2007-09-29 at the ISBN 978-0-87982-007-7
- Wilson, Laurie; Louise Nevelson : iconography and sources (ISBN 978-0-8240-3946-2
- Uyehara, Seian; Environmental sculpture (Honolulu, 1971) OCLC 16327465
- Sonfist, Alan; Wolfgang Becker; Robert Rosenblum. Nature, the end of art : environmental landscapes (New York : D.A.P. ; London : Thames & Hudson, 2004) ISBN 978-0-615-12533-6
External links
- Urban Art Projects
- Britannica online definition of environmental sculpture
- Answers.com pages on Louise Nevelson including short summary by Laurie Wilson
- Environmental sculpture as defined by working contemporary sculptor Beth Galston
- Environmental sculpture by the sculptor Lucien den Arend
- New York Times, Louise Nevelson obituary (1988) (calling her "a pioneer creator of environmental sculpture")
- Alan Sonfist Official Web Page
- Olga Kisseleva Official Web Page
- Australian town gateway sculpture - case study 1993 landmark environmental artwork by artist Fran Ferguson
- Andrew Rogers Website
- Jacek Tylicki Land & Environmental Art projects
- Zoe - A Living Sea Sculpture: A living contemporary art installation and coral restoration project in Cozumel, Mexico