Quotes about sculpture
page 4

“The London office of the International Council for University Development was in Queen Street. Edwin hesitated outside, adjusting his cap, tightening the knot of his tie, smoothing his pyjama collar. The portals, a naked sculptural group above them emblematic of the Tutorial System, were designed to intimidate. The doors were all glass and hence appeared to be ever-open; this again must be emblematic of something.”

Anthony Burgess (1917–1993) English writer

Fiction, The Doctor is Sick (1960)

Universe, Appearance

“Barry was one of the first to see that mass and volume in sculpture were not dependent upon visibility… But also, and perhaps more importantly, that language was a necessary component to communicate the idea in conceptual art.”

Robert Morgan (1943) American art historian

Robert C. Morgan, cited in: Genocchio, Benjamin. " A Career Built on Exploring the Boundaries of Art http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/30/nyregion/a-career-built-on-exploring-the-boundaries-of-art.html", The New York Times, November 30, 2003

Art, Communication, Idea, Dependency

“I like the fact that every stone is different, one from another, in the same way all fingerprints, or snowflakes (or places) are unique, so no two circles can be alike. In the landscape works, the stones are of the place and remain there. With an indoor sculpture there is a different working rationale. The work is usually first made to fit its first venue in terms of scale, but it is not site-specific; the work is autonomous in that it can be re-made in another space and place. When this happens, there is a specific written procedure to follow. The selection of the stones is usually random; also individual stones will be in different places within the work each time. Nevertheless, it is the 'same' work whenever it is re-made.”

Richard Long (1945) artist

Richard Long, ‎British Council (1994). Richard Long: São Paulo Bienal 1994.
1990s

Way, Time

“One of the mysteries is how the human mind can hear a piece of music, a symphony from the beginning to the end, before beginning; or see a sculpture finished all the way round, when it doesn't exist. Now these faculties are the sort faculties which are needed in sciences, math, and medicine and all kind of things. But if one has them, one has to learn to use them... You can't start with a block and say: 'Now it's going to dictate me.”

Barbara Hepworth (1903–1975) English sculptor

You [the artist] dictate to it.
Source: 1961 - 1975, Art Talk, conversations with 15 woman artists', (1975), pp. 24-25

Music, Way, Learning, Science

“I became part of this German wave of new painting and sculpture [ w:Neo-expressionism ], even though I didn’t fit in. Baselitz and the other young German artists, their paintings were demonstrative figuration, while my work was more lyrical and Cubist, based on still life. None of the curators of the exhibitions at the time knew what to do with it. I could see that they almost wished I’d just withdraw. But it’s an outsider position with which I’ve been really comfortable. I was able to extend myself within my own thing, which wasn’t very successful internationally. My work was not punchy enough. I succeeded in constantly evading branding. My history with Fluxus is actually quite funny. I went to New York in 1966 as a relatively young man, wanting to meet all these artists. Denmark was extremely small and stuffy. In high school I had discovered something called Jackson Pollock, and I was furious that no one had told me about this before... I was calling around, saying, 'Hello, I’m a Danish artist. I would like to meet you.”

Per Kirkeby (1938–2018) Danish artist

1995 and later, interview in Kirkeby’s home studio, Copenhagen (2012)

Life, School, History, Time

“A lady 'twixt two knights' stone effigies,
And every day in dusky glory steeps
Their sculptured slumber of five centuries.”

Emma Lazarus (1849–1887) American poet

St Michael's Chapel http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/st-michael-s-chapel/

“From the very beginning of the Constructivist Movement it was clear to me that a constructed sculpture, by its very method and technique brings sculpture very near to architecture... My works of this time up to 1924.... are all in the search for an image which would fuse the sculptural element with the architectural element in one unit. I consider this Column the culmination of that search.”

Naum Gabo (1890–1977) Russian sculptor

Quote of Gabo, as cited in: Simon Wilson (1991), Tate Gallery: An Illustrated Companion, Tate Gallery, London, revised edition. p. 146
undated

Search, Time

“We deemed the secret lost, the spirit gone,
Which spake in Greek simplicity of thought,
And in the forms of gods and heroes wrought
Eternal beauty from the sculptured stone”

Margaret Fuller (1810–1850) American feminist, poet, author, and activist

A higher charm than modern culture won,
With all the wealth of metaphysic lore,
Gifted to analyze, dissect explore.
Life Without and Life Within (1859), Flaxman

God, Secret, Beauty

“And fair with sculptured stories it was wrought,
By lapse of time unto dim ruin brought.”

William Morris (1834–1896) author, designer, and craftsman

The Earthly Paradise (1868-70), The Lady of the Land
Context: Noble the house was, nor seemed built for war,
But rather like the work of other days,
When men, in better peace than now they are,
Had leisure on the world around to gaze,
And noted well the past times' changing ways;
And fair with sculptured stories it was wrought,
By lapse of time unto dim ruin brought.

Time

“Now Art, used collectively for painting, sculpture, architecture and music, is the mediatress between, and reconciler of, nature and man.”

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) English poet, literary critic and philosopher

On Poesy or Art (1818)
Context: Now Art, used collectively for painting, sculpture, architecture and music, is the mediatress between, and reconciler of, nature and man. It is, therefore, the power of humanizing nature, of infusing the thoughts and passions of man into everything which is the object of his contemplation.

Art, Music, Nature, Painting

“Back out of all this now too much for us,
Back in a time made simple by the loss
Of detail, burned, dissolved, and broken off
Like graveyard marble sculpture in the weather,
There is a house that is no more a house
Upon a farm that is no more a farm
And in a town that is no more a town.”

Robert Frost (1874–1963) American poet

Directive (1947)
Context: Back out of all this now too much for us,
Back in a time made simple by the loss
Of detail, burned, dissolved, and broken off
Like graveyard marble sculpture in the weather,
There is a house that is no more a house
Upon a farm that is no more a farm
And in a town that is no more a town.
The road there, if you'll let a guide direct you
Who only has at heart your getting lost,
May seem as if it should have been a quarry –
Great monolithic knees the former town
Long since gave up pretense of keeping covered.
And there's a story in a book about it…

Loss, Time, Housing, Weather

“There is a school of Philosophy still in existence of which modern culture has lost sight. Glimpses of it are discernible in the ancient philosophies with which all educated men are familiar, but these are hardly more intelligible than fragments of forgotten sculpture,-less so, for we comprehend the human form, and can give imaginary limbs to a torso; but we can give no imaginary meaning to the truth coming down to us from Plato or Pythagoras, pointing, for those who hold the clue to their significance, to the secret knowledge of the ancient world. Side lights, nevertheless, may enable us to decipher such language, and a very rich intellectual reward offers itself to persons who are willing to attempt the investigation.”

Alfred Percy Sinnett book The Occult World

Introduction
The Occult World

Men, Truth, Secret, World

“The new work obviously resembles sculpture more than it does painting, but it is nearer to painting.”

Donald Judd (1928–1994) artist

Source: 1960s, "Specific Objects," 1965, p. 75; Cited in: Diane Waldman. Carl Andre https://archive.org/stream/carlandre00wald#page/6/mode/1up. Published 1970 by Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. p. 6

Painting

“Well sure, my sculptures are floor pieces. Each one, like any area on the surface of the earth, supports a column of air that weighs – what is it?”

Carl Andre (1935) American artist

14.7 pounds per square inch. So in a sense, that might represent a column. It's not an idea, it's a sense of something you know, a demarked place. Somehow I think I always thought of it going that way, rather than an idea of a narrowing triangle going to the center of the earth.. .I have nothing to do with Conceptual art [in contrast to his Physical Art, as Carl Andre called his sculpture art already in 1969]]. I'm not interested in ideas. If I were interested in ideas, I'd be in a field where what we think in is ideas.. .I don't really know what an idea is. One thing for me is that if I can frame something in language, I would never make art out of it. I make art out of things which cannot be framed in any other way. [quote from a talk with the audience, December 1969]
Source: Artists talks 1969 – 1977, p. 12

Support

“When we talk about culture, it includes literature, paintings, music, dance, sculpture, folklores, festivals, and celebrations.”

Mubarak Ali (1941) Historian, activist, scholar

In Search of History, Chapter I: War and Peace in Historical Perspectives, p. 1
Culture

Music, Literature, Dance, Painting

“Wherever there is a main issue the elimination of other things which are not essential will make for a stronger result. In the earlier static abstract sculptures I was most interested in space, vectoral quantities, and centers of differing densities.”

Alexander Calder (1898–1976) American artist

1930s, Statement from Modern Painting and Sculpture (1933)
Source: en.wikiquote.org - Alexander Calder / Quotes / 1930s / Statement from Modern Painting and Sculpture (1933)

Making love

“As truly serious art must follow the greater laws, and not only appearances, I try to put all the elements in motion in my mobile sculptures.”

Alexander Calder (1898–1976) American artist

1930s, It Shall Move - On Mobile Sculptures (1932)

Law, Art, Appearance

“One of the canons of the futuristic painters, as propounded by Modigliani, was that objects behind other objects should not be lost to view, but should be shown through the others by making the latter transparent. The wire sculpture accomplishes this in a most decided manner.”

Alexander Calder (1898–1976) American artist

1920s, Excerpt, Statement on Wire Sculpture (1929)

Making love

“The illusionary nature of a two dimensional work of art can sometimes frustrate my creative process. I overcome this by stepping out of the flat illusion into the three dimensional and create sculptures of wood and bronze.”

Tomasz Vetulani (1965) Polish artist

Vetulani.nl (The website of Tomasz Vetulani) https://web.archive.org/web/20220505122011/https://www.vetulani.nl/sculptures, archived from the original https://www.vetulani.nl/sculptures (accessed on May 5th, 2022)

Art, Nature

Quotes about sculpture page 4

Quotes about sculpture
page 4