Topic 6 Formal elements in sculpture 3 - 20th century sculpture

Question 1

What does Avant-garde mean?

Answer 1

New and experimental.

Question 2

What is Modernism the umbrella term for?

Answer 2

Different, smaller movements/groups of artists in the 20th century.

Question 3

What did Modernism reject?

Answer 3

• Traditional subject matter and traditional materials and techniques.
• Classical ideals of beauty, naturalism, symbolism and decoration in favour of formal qualities closer to the industrial modern age.

Question 4

The meaning became more about what?

Answer 4

The work itself, and other artwork, than about portraying the natural world.

Question 5

What was there a diverse range of in the early 20th century?

Answer 5

Avant-garde styles but continued to engage with formal features.

Question 6

What was there the major development in the later 20th century?

Answer 6

The breakdown of the idea of sculpture as a solid mass surrounded by space.

Question 7

Who founded Constructivism and when?

Answer 7

Vladimir Tatlin around 1915 together with Alexander Rodchenko.

Question 8

There were three main principles to his Constructivist production:

Answer 8

• Faktura - respect for the character of the materials of sculpture, whether natural or manufactured.
• Construction - the conscious physical organisation of material according to technical, rational and geometrical needs.
• Tectonics - overriding 3D structural theoretical principles.

Question 9

What is Faktura?

Answer 9

Texture.

Question 10

What is Construction?

Answer 10

Making something,

Question 11

By the 1960s sculpture had expanded to use what?

Answer 11

A seemingly infinite variety of materials to create an endless variety of forms.

Question 12

The term ‘sculpture’ was no longer what by the 1960s?

Answer 12

A fixed concept within the fine art tradition.

Question 13

What became a central concern of the Postmodernism of the 1980s?

Answer 13

The kind of space a sculpture occupies, or creates around it, and how its meaning relates to that physical space.

Question 14

What is an example of Minimalism?

Answer 14

Flavin’s Untitled (Corner Piece)

Question 15

What is a Fulcrum?

Answer 15

A thing that plays a central or essential role in an activity, event, or situation OR the point or support on which a lever turns. (Balance.)

Question 16

What does Manipulating scale mean?

Answer 16

• Manipulating = the process of altering something to create new and original artworks.
• Scale = the size of an object in relation to another object (e.g. a dolls house is a small scale house).