Three Favorite Western Sculptures

THREE FAVORITE WESTERN SCULPTURES

“Reclining Figure: Arch Leg” (1969-70) by Henry Moore
“The Burghers of Calais” (1884-89) by Auguste Rodin
“Unique Forms of Continuity in Space” (1913) by Umberto Boccioni

Sculpture in the West is characterized by a long tradition of naturalism, and later on, by realism.

By “naturalism,” we mean the manifest intent of the artist to represent in the work of art the observable world, the human figure especially, as it is seen by the naked eye, that is, to achieve verisimilitude.

Naturalism in sculpture first attained its apogee in Classical Greece and was associated with Greek ideals of virtue and perfection.

Classical Roman sculpture was heavily influenced by this style.

Naturalism has not always been the norm in Western sculpture. Notably, Byzantine and medieval art did not recapitulate Classical ideals, which were revived during the Renaissance.

“Realism” is a related nineteenth-century development. Realism is often naturalistic but not necessarily so. It was concerned with visual commentary about the observable world and often concerning social reality.

“Socialist realism,” a type of realism, developed into the official style of twentieth-century Communist states like Stalinist Russia and Maoist China. As a rule, Socialist realism served the purposes of Communist propaganda. It is a style that survives today in North Korea.

Abstraction, which came into full flower in modern art, carried through a thoroughgoing repudiation of naturalism and realism.

Abstraction has been very successful in modern and postmodern culture. Abstraction exerts its own unique appeal through the creative manipulation and arrangement by the artist of abstract elements.

Abstraction is ubiquitous, besides. Some degree of abstraction exists in almost every instance of naturalism and realism.

True of any aesthetic idiom, abstraction in sculpture is not separable from the social context and the meaning that arises from the dynamic interaction between the abstract work of art and its context.

My first choice of a favorite sculpture, “Reclining Figure: Arch Leg” (1969-70) by Henry Moore, is abstract and modern. It reflects my own enchantment with abstraction, pervasive in modern art, and which, I have remarked, exerts its own special aesthetic appeal.

“Reclining figure” is a common motif of Moore’s art, inspired, say biographers by his encounter with the chac-mool reclining figures of Mesoamerican art during his 1924 trip to Paris on scholarship.

Moore was a postwar modern artist who built on the pioneering work of early twentieth-century sculptors like Raymond Duchamp-Villon, Jacques Lipchitz, or Constantin Brâncuși, all of whom pushed the bounds of abstraction.

At first modern sculptors did not produce wholly abstract art but rather figurative pieces distinguished by highly stylized abstraction. Moore’s work developed in this direction while rapidly evolving into his own signature style.

Moore’s sculptures engage us by transforming the subject into abstract elements yet maintaining the identity of the original figure. Twisting sinuously, often monumentally solid shapes cumulate and elongate, so that when what appear to be separate members join together into a single piece, the result elicits surprise and delight. Holes are accents, imaginatively conceived.

Today we are familiar with abstract figurative distortion, but in Moore’s time it was pioneering.

This particular piece exemplifies Moore’s best, most dramatic traits.

Two additional views, excellent, of this piece are available at this link:

https://ysp.org.uk/openair/reclining-figure-arch-leg

 

—“Henry Moore: Reclining Figure: Arch Leg,” Yorkshire Sculpture Park

Reclining Figure: Arch Leg (1969-70) by Henry Moore

Auguste Rodin represents the beginning of modern art in sculpture, the same way, we might say, Édouard Manet marks the shift to modern art in painting.

Although Rodin’s starting point was naturalism—after all, he could not entirely escape the overbearing influence at the time of the French academic tradition—Rodin quickly developed his own inimitably characteristic style, wherein he would mold in muscular clay powerfully evocative figures afterwards cast in bronze. Dramatic gesture, distortion, rough finish, highly original conception—they are often the main elements that worked together to give stunning visual expression to his unusually personal vision. Among modern art movements, his work is probably closest to Expressionism.

“The Burghers of Calais” (1884-89) is one of Rodin’s most famous works, and it’s No. 2—Moore’s is third best—on my list of favorite Western sculptures.

We will not be able to fully grasp the significance of this piece without placing it in the historical context of the Hundred Years’ War. Rodin depicts the time when the city of Calais has been besieged by Edward III for over one year. The warlord is poised to breach the walls, after which a massacre of the citizens inside and looting will surely ensue. On the condition that six leading citizens of the city surrender themselves to the English army for execution, the king offers the inhabitants of Calais the option of a peaceful capitulation. He pointedly demands that the burghers are to exit the city with nooses around their necks. It is an unforgettably tragic moment in the history of Calais and of France.

Each of Rodin’s six figures is powerfully and emotionally rendered. Not only their heads and faces but also their hands and feet, their entire bodies burst with emotion, because for Rodin it is the entire figure in a single exclamation that is the subject of creative visual expression. Notably, their heads, hands, and feet are expressively enlarged.

The Burghers of Calais (1884-89) by August Rodin

Rodin intended each of the six figures to be individually examined as the viewer steps around the monument. The foremost figure at the front is Pierre de Wiessant, his forearm gesticulating upwards in despair. He usually draws the most attention. 

In order to better convey the intensity of this extraordinary work, I have posted details of him and of the countenance of Jean d’Aire, the bearer of the keys of Calais, positioned at the rear.

Pierre de Wiessant, detail

Jean d’Aire, detail

Here it is, my favorite Western sculpture—“Unique Forms of Continuity in Space” (1913) by Umberto Boccioni. It depicts a muscular human figure in forward motion. Speed lines and shapes travel smoothly over the surface of the figure, abstractly transforming it. Studiously crafted, it is an early example of figurative abstraction.

It is possibly the best archetype in Western sculpture of Futurism, an Italian art movement that focused on representing the defining attributes of “modernity” insofar as it was understood at the time—speed, energy, dynamism, technology, and industrialization, for example. Industrial inventions like the motorcar, train, or the airplane served as characteristic motifs.

Appearing soon after the inception of modern sculpture, the work is prescient and influential.

Unique Forms of Continuity in Space (1913) by Umberto Boccioni, side view

Unique Forms of Continuity in Space (1913) by Umberto Boccioni,
three-quarters rear view