Page 38 - Studio International - April 1970

3
Head of a Girl 1907
Stone
Height 111 in.
Arenberg Collection—Philadelphia Museum of Art
4
Auguste Rodin
Large head of Iris 1891
Bronze
23f in.
Trustees of the Tate Gallery, London
5
Timidity, 1915
Stone
Height 141 in.
Musée Nationale d'Art Moderne, Paris
6
Sleeping Muse 1910
Bronze
Length 11 in.
Art Institute of Chicago
7
Prometheus 1911
Polished bronze
Length 7 in.
Coll: Joseph H. Hirshhorn
8
The Sorceress 1916-22 ( ?)
Wood
Height 391 in.
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
9
Torso of Young Man 1923
Maple
Height 19 in.
Philadelphia Museum of Art
and effect of his work that alienated his tool and the structure of the material, stone or wood. Of the multitude of possibili-
contemporaries, and incidentally gave sculp- whether it is crystalline, fibrous, or whatever. ties that Rodin opened up for young sculp-
ture an autonomy, an independence of The carver works by taking away material tors at the beginning of this century, Brancusi
specific subject matter and public function from within a given limit; the modeller by chose the one that was most essential. Rodin
that was by no means Rodin's own intention. adding until that limit is reached. had established the centrality of sculpture as
Rodin had no programme : tremendous Construction is done by the fixing and joining an art—but not the centrality of modelling.
energy, confidence and resource of his of preformed parts. The material has high That was his way, and Brancusi perceived it
particular kind of talent found outlet in more tensile strength: the focus is not at the centre, by choosing the opposite; not out of perver-
or less random fashion : sculptures change their as with carving or modelling, but at the sity, but because it accorded precisely with
titles, figures are dismembered and re- joints. I will be discussing subsequently the his temperament. The inessentials — subject
assembled, parts of figures become sculp- symbolic importance of Picasso's first con- matter, imagery, etc. — were part of the
tures in themselves, and so on. His work is structions: but it needed artists to whom the continuing tradition of sculpture and could
cumulative, additive, in a state of continuous constructive process was central, workers take care of themselves. Three sculptures of
self-generation; and, in spite of the often in metal, such as Gonzales and David Smith, the same title or subject by each artist— The
`intimate' content, its orientation is always to make his invention into something as Kiss, The Prodigal-Son, and Brancusi's Head of a
public, outwards, reaching out for and in- substantial in sculpture's own terms as Girl and Rodin's Large Head of Iris—show this
volving the response of the spectator. These modelling or carving.3 continuity of traditional elements together
are the characteristics that for me define To return to Rodin: he, for me, is the first with the total oppositeness of their art.
modelling, as a fundamental sculptural modern sculptor not because of his imagery, Where modelling is public, and extrovert,
activity, representing one pole of physical his use of the figure, his affinities with impres- carving is private, even secret. Rodin's
and mental procedure in sculpture, another sionism; but because his art is modelling before sculpture strives to take possession of the
being carving, the third being construction. it is anything else; and because he took world, to dominate and transform it. Bran-
Carving, modelling and construction are not modelling to its limits. Those elements of cusi's sculpture is ideally seen in his studio or
only ways of dealing with particular materials : Rodin's work which to many sensibilities, in some similar enclosed situation, withdrawn
they stand for the kind of mental processes including my own, are intrinsically repulsive, from reality, making a world within a world.
that go into making not only sculpture, but the apparent chaos, the lack of unity, order Brancusi defined carving for sculpture, as
any work of art. The physical nature of or proportion, the emphasis on texture and Rodin had defined modelling. He did not
sculpture, its having to be physically handled, surface : once one has grasped that this is, in fight public battles for sculpture, as Rodin had
made, by the artist thus gives it the potential the abstract, what modelling is about, then done; Brancusi's achievement was rather to
role of representing creative making in one can start to perceive a kind of order establish that sculpture could carry all those
general: that sculpture should become the proper to it; the figure in violent movement qualities of privateness, and concentration,
model of the arts. or contorted pose is the vehicle, the means and inwardness, and quietness, that for cen-
Briefly, the characteristics of the three pro- rather than the end; Rodin's remarks about turies had been the privilege of a certain kind
cesses are as follows : in modelling the material form moving from the inside to the surface; of painting.
is soft, self-adhesive, with no internal struc- that the effect of his sculpture is always out-
tural or tensile strength : typically, one adds going, from the centre towards the spectator, III
lump by lump until an outer limit of coherence reflect the modelling process—adding, out- In his first direct carvings, Brancusi either
is reached. wards from a core, pushing into the surroun- scratches the surface of the block, as in The
With carving, the material is hard, resistant: ding space. Kiss, or, starting from the portrait head, goes
the process subtractive with a multitude of As I have discussed in connection with his to the nut or kernel in the centre of the block.
small strokes. Carving is done with a tool, student and early work, Brancusi may be said Initially, he tries to develop The Kiss by
modelling with the hand and fingers : the end- to have been by nature a carver, even before carving into the block, as in The Wisdom of the
form of carving results from the action of the he started consciously to carve directly in Earth, but over the years the treatment of the