Page 50 - Studio International - March April 1975

What Sculpture is

William Tucker Part five

At this stage you may well feel that my believed that it was the god, and how on the work, and the change in the
attempts to define sculpture as 'thing' would it be said to resemble him ? At best context in which it is seen, are we ever
depend rather on assertion than argument : it would evoke the presence of the god in deceived into thinking such sculptures
and moreover flies in the face of the his shrine: but the sculpture is recognised are actually alive ?
recent experience of sculpture — both as, is grasped as, a figure — a Indeed the more deliberate an illusion
obviously so called 'non-object' sculpture, representation in bronze of a man, nude, of life, the deader becomes the sculpture,
but also the mainstream of abstract standing in a particular attitude. There is once we are aware of the fact of the
sculpture, for which sculpture is 'about no possibility of taking it for a real illusion. In Madame Tussaud's the
sculpture', in the sense of a generally figure, a living person : but it is sufficiently attendant on the stairs, the old lady
undefined tradition, rather than being, or lifelike to ensure that our response is not on the bench are alive because you
being aware of itself as primarily thing. that which we would have to a rock, a mistake them for real, and they live while
With more substance, I think, one could tree, a table or a chair, nor to a living you continue in this belief. When you
say of the sculpture of the past that it is person standing still there, nor indeed to discover your error, they are as dead as the
not firstly a thing, or a thing with a the god himself. It is a sculpture and it is a wax dummies on the other side of the
function: you may argue it is simply figure: we accept and enjoy it on these rope that divides the real world from the
perverse to look at it in this way, when it terms, and the ambiguous, if not simulated. Yet in detail all those figures
is, and was made as, an image. This contradictory nature of its presence does are real enough, surely: real hair, clothes
figure, for example, is an image, a not interfere with our response. Indeed and accessories, convincing attitudes,
representation of the god. No one the ambiguity, the illusion that we are life-like texture and colouring of flesh.
looking at a living being while remaining Why are these not sculpture ? Is it a
conscious that it is in reality a metal shell, matter of the name only, or the intention
rather enhances our pleasure in it. of the entrepreneur, or the talent of the
Equally, today, the argument would craftsmen ?
run, when confronted by an abstract What is the difference between a figure
sculpture, we are conscious of it not as a sculpture and a living person standing
mere heap of wood or iron sections, nor as still ?
a useful object, but as a sculpture. The The question is not so absurd as it
nature of sculpture's presence in the might seem, especially if we are speaking
world is not questioned: it does not have of a momentary experience, never to be
to masquerade as a table or chair to justify repeated. Under such conditions it is
its existence: one is conscious possible to achieve almost anything in the
simultaneously of its character as material, realm of illusion. The artist is
ordered in a certain way, and of the fact manipulating not only the physical
that it is sculpture. This is enough. The materials, but the fact of the spectator's
world in which the work exists is the attention, in the knowledge that it is
world of sculpture, or perhaps the world fleeting and fragmentary. He is working
of art: the individual character of the rather with the total context in which the
sculpture springs from the way it is made. sculpture is seen, in time as well as space,
We recognize and respond to the as much as with the object itself.
sensibility revealed by the evidence of the But sculpture, in common with all art,
making process in the sculpture; and the demands constant attention, prolonged
more sculpture we see, the more our and repeated scrutiny. Under this sort
taste is developed and the deeper our of scrutiny, the skin-likeness, however
response to every new sculpture as we talented the artist, of waxwork sculpture,
experience it. will not hold the illusion of life. Recent
Now, in the first case, 'the figure' is examples of so-called 'New Realist'
taken as the horizon of our experience sculpture will illustrate this point. They
of sculpture: in the second, "sculpture" are exactly life-size, of course, and in
is the horizon. Both propositions mark consequence, too small. The actual size of
off the boundary of sculpture in such a sculpture is crucial to its presence. The
way as to exchange the continuity and living person can control his size, in
necessary uncertainty of sculpture's effect, by drawing near or standing away
relation with the world, for the comfort from you: but for sculpture, size is a fixed
of certainty, albeit a certainty that we attribute which enables the work to enter
must work long and hard to obtain. Such and hold the gaze of the spectator. The
a bargain constitutes the essence of most life-like sculpture with which I am
academicism (Academicism being the acquainted, Rodin's study for one of the
representation of art as having a defined Burghers of Calais, the lean d' Aire, is
boundary, as being a craft, even if a craft substantially over life-size. It is in bronze,
of a high order). If this point is hard to of course. There is no illusion of the
grasp, let's return for a moment to the colour of flesh. There is no attempt at a
figure and try to see what the function of detailed realism of surface. It is the way
the image really is. We might consider the the sculpture stands that makes it real —
artist's own intention — after all we know awkwardly braced, uneasy, about to
that at certain periods the whole thrust of topple forward or backward — coupled
sculpture was towards as great as possible with its size, which continually brings it
Rodin The Age of Bronze 1875-76 an illusion of 'life'. Yet when we look close into our gaze. It achieves and
Bronze, 71¼ x 23½ x 23½ in. now at sculpture made then, even sustains lifelikeness, without, in fact
Tate Gallery allowing for the physical effects of time because of, literal imitation of surface,

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