Chap 11, 12, 13 notes

Chapter 11, 12, 13

Chapter 11 Sculpture

Some materials used in sculpture are wax, plaster, wood, marble, metals, concrete, and clay.

- Freestanding or in the round – to be seen from all sides

- Relief – a projection from a surrounding surface
- Low relief – slight projection from the surface such as a coin
- High relief – more than half of the projection is raised from the surface

Methods and Materials –

- Modeling – pliable materials such as clay, wax or plaster are built up, removed or pushed into the final form. Modeling is most often an additive process.
- Additive – to add materials to an armature, to build up the materials
- Subtraction – to take away material
- Armature – underlying rigid inner structure

- Casting – to execute a work then reproduce it in a more permanent material. Casting involves a substitution of one material for another making a substitution process. Generally clay is used as the base then a mold is made then cast with another material usually bronze.

- Carving – to take away unwanted material to form a sculpture is called a subtractive process. The most widely used carving material is marble but there are many other materials that are used such as wood, plaster, jade, basalt, etc.
- Void – an enclosed or defined negative space

- Constructing and Assembling – Assembling materials began popular in the early 20th century and were called constructions. Some popular types of constructions are -
- Kinetic Sculpture – sculpture that moves (mobiles and stabiles)
- Mixed media – to use a variety of media in a single work
- Installations – 3D use of constructing and assembling a work
- Readymades - generally incorporate everyday items in a different way than the intended use of the object.
- Land Art or Earthworks - Site specific using natural items
- Public Art – exhibited outdoors for public viewing

Two general types of sculptural form -

Tectonic – simple massive forms – (Kiss by Brancusi pg 31 or Qennefer pg 46)

Atectonic – spacious forms – (Man Pointing by Giacometti pg 46 or Dancing Krishna pg 57)


Chapter 12 Clay, Glass, Metal, Wood, Fiber

Clay -
Ceramics – making objects from clay
Firing – clay exposed to heat hardens in a process called firing
Potter – a person who works with clay
Earthenware – fired at a relatively low temperature and is porous after firing
Stoneware – fired at a high temperature and is not porous
Porcelain – fired at a high temperature, rare, non porous, first developed in China
Building methods –
- Slab – flat, sheet of clay
- Coil – hand rolled coils
- Modeling – to build on an armature
- Throwing – shaping clay on a moving wheel
- Kiln – a clay oven
- Slip – liquid clay used to secure pieces together. Can be colored for use in decoration of clay called underglazes.
- Glaze – liquid with a silica base that turns into a glass like substance when fired. Glaze creates a nonporous surface and can be glossy, matte, translucent or opaque depending on the chemical composition used.

Basic Building Methods
1. Pinch – involves starting with a ball of clay and thinning it with the pressure of the thumb and fingers. It looks easy but requires patience and dexterity with sensitivity to thickness and form. The sides should be no wider than ¼”.
2. Coil – is rolled into snakes joined one on top of each other or in other ways. The coils are either smoothed together or joins are secured by scoring and slipping.
3. Slab – clay is flattened by hand or with a roller and the resulting slab is then used around molds or cut to form pieces to build and join with scoring and slipping.
Three Stages of Working Material
1. Wet clay – moist clay is the most pliable when beginning and forming the basic project.
2. Leather hard clay – is still moist, but had dried enough so it will maintain its formed shape when handled. This stage is when to clean, trim, and add attachments with slip.
3. Bone dry clay - is completely dry at room temperature. Project will be extremely fragile at this point and no further attachments can be made.
Steps in the Firing Process
1. Greenware – a finished bone dry project before it is fired in a kiln. It is usually left uncolored at this point, but can be decorated with colored slips.
2. Bisque – is clay that has been fired in the kiln once to force moisture out, strengthen the form, and create a glaze ready surface.
3. Glazeware – a bisque ware piece is coated with glaze which forms a hard glass like surface when fired. Glazeware must be fired to a specific melting point for the glaze to create the glass-like surface.
Finishing
1. Burnishing – using a spoon or other smooth object to polish greenware giving it a smooth finish before firing.
2. Glazing – to use a clay based substance on bisque which is then fired to create a glass like finish.

Glass - has been used for at least 4 thousand years as a material for practical containers of all shapes and sizes. In the Middle Ages, stained glass was used for churches and blown-glass pieces have been made in Venice Italy since the Renaissance. Glass is a fine medium for decorative inlays in a variety of objects including jewelry.

Metal - primary characteristics are strength and formability. The various types of metal most often used for sculpture can be hammered, cut, drawn out, welded, joined with rivets or cast. Early metal smiths created tools, vessels, armor, and weapons
Wood - Growth characteristics if individual trees remain visible in the grain of the wood long after trees are cut, giving wood vitality not found in other materials.

Fiber art - includes such processes as weaving, stitching, basketmaking, surface design, wearable art and handmade papermaking. These fiber processes use natural and synthetic fibers in both traditional and innovative ways. Artists working with fiber draw on the heritage of traditional practices and also explore new avenues of expression.

Chapter 13 Architecture and Environmental Design

Post and lintel – most common structure - vertical posts or columns support horizontal beams and carry the weight of the entire structure to the ground

Round arch – semicircular arch of stone
- Barrel vault – is a round arch extended to create a tunnel like structure.
- Groin vault – formed by two intersecting barrel vaults creating 4 openings
- Vault – curving ceiling or roof structure made of bricks or stone tightly fitted together to form a shell
- Keystone – the final stone set in the top of the arch.
- Arcade – a series of arches supported by columns

Romans first introduced concrete.

Dome – arch rotated 180 degrees

Gothic Arch – pointed arch – allowed buildings to be wider and taller with larger windows.
- buttresses – outer walls built at right angles to the gothic arch support weight
- flying buttresses – stone half arch on the outside of the building

Trusses – triangular wood framework use to span, reinforce, or support

Steel and reinforced concrete – between 1890 and 1910 developed of high strength structural steel made way for skyscrapers

Louis Sullivan – pg 215 - first great modern architect used steel and concrete creating the skyscraper. His first skyscraper was the Wainwright Building in St Louis MO and was made possible by the invention of the elevator and steel used for structural skeletons of buildings. Sullivan’s philosophy
“form follows function.”

International Style – broke way from decorative ornamentation, and the idea of a building as a mass expressing the function of each building, its underlying structure and asymmetrical plan.

Le Corbusier, a French architect - designed the Domino construction system – steel column and reinforced concrete slab construction designed by the floors and roof are supported on load bearing columns instead of walls making it possible to vary the placement of interior walls

Walter Gropius – used the International Style for the BAUHAUS and art school in Germany. Because the walls were not load bearing they could be made from glass called curtain walls.

Mies van der Rohe – designed the Seagram Building in New York. It was a steel frame construction with non load bearing walls leaving large public areas open at the base.
Rohe’s famous quote “Less is more.”

Frank Lloyd Wright - pg 222 – influenced by Japanese architecture, he was the first to use open floor plans. Wright created natural spaces flowing into the outdoors making use of the cantilever. One of his most well known homes is called Falling Water. He has several homes in Grand Rapids also.

- Cantilever – when a beam or slab is extended a substantial distance beyond a supporting column, the overhanging part is the cantilever.