Monday, April 18, 2016

The Thing About Abstract Sculptures

By Peter Russell


Looking at any work of art, especially that of a master, makes you want to appreciate it. Even when you just do not seem to be able to grasp its meaning. But sometimes, the beauty in art, lies when you do not understand it. The most beautiful poems, paintings and sculptures were never meant to be understood.

Your ancestors used rocks to paint on. Back then, there was no other tool that artists now have access to. And they have delved into symbolic pieces, geometric that have no definite form but nevertheless, not void of visual meaning. It is at this level that abstract sculptures New York have originated from, in one way or another.

It is also because of this, that it communicates to people. One can just look at the sheer beauty of calligraphy, for example, without even being able to read it. While paintings of this type thrives on infinite emotions and ideas, sculpture tends to give out something more conceptual in form.

That is the beauty of it. Other times, you would go wondering what the artist was thinking. Before the rise of the twentieth century, all sculpture was made to become figural. That means it should resemble a person, or something tangible, like an animal or thing that is seen or considered seen, in the real world.

Sculptures, back then were used to celebrate and honor events like battles, salute to famous people or as ornaments in buildings. They were either carved from stone or molded from clay before they are cast in bronze. Artists never made enough money when they were not making painstaking studies and trials and errors before they finally became sculptural work.

Some people specifically explored using different materials. Others tried to find ways more ways in conveying their emotions. This made them set aside traditional definitions and what the audience expected of art. In which case, materials, or inspiration is used, not as a subject that can be represented, but to be expressed, and to be a source of ideas.

Without even representing anything in particular. That is already the step towards real appreciation. It is okay to be different in grasping it. It is also okay not to grasp what the rest thinks is cool. You should not have to jump with that kind of bandwagon. You may not have to take in or decode what triggered the emotions you had for it.

In that, others would want to be realists, while some would like the idea of being minimalists and then there are the abstract sculptors, which would be a combination of all of them. Gone are the days that this kind of art was just an honor to fallen heroes. Now, they exist to revolutionize shapes in stones and woods that you can make some inspiration out of.

There will be times that you will find it hard to figure out, when you are a spectator. Or when you are in a modern museum. But that is just the thing. It was not meant to be figured out. It is meant to be felt and appreciated in its mystery and oddity.




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