[MUSIC PLAYING] Hello. I'd like to welcome you to this episode of Exploring Art History with Ian. My name is Ian McConnell. And today's lesson is about sculpture.
As you're watching the video, feel free to pause, move forward, or rewind as often as you feel is necessary. And as soon as you're ready, we can begin.
Today's objectives, or the things you're going to learn today, are listed below. By the end of the lesson today, you'll be able to identify different types of sculpture, explain that sculptures differ according to medium-- the material used-- and explain the difference between additive, subtractive, and assemblage sculpture.
The key terms, as always, will be listed in yellow throughout the lesson. The first key term is casting-- the production of sculptures by pouring a liquid, like plaster, molten metal, or wax, into a mold and letting it harden before the mold is removed. Carving-- the production of a sculpture by scraping away, or removing, extra material from a block of stone, piece of wood, or other hard substance until the desired shape emerges. Modeling is the production of sculpture by adding bits of clay together until they start to resemble the desired shape.
And additive is any sculptural technique that involves adding material, such as casting or in modeling. Subtractive is any sculptural technique that involves taking material away, such as carving. And assemblage is creating a sculpture by putting together a series of found objects. The big idea is the common theme or thread throughout the lesson. And today's big idea is that sculpture is a three-dimensional type of artwork made by adding, removing, or assembling almost any type of material.
So why do we care about sculpture? Sculpture is a 3D art form and can be made out of almost any material, like I mentioned before. Now, the traditional, or most common, materials are metal, stone, and wood. And as examples, we'll start with the wooden bodhisattva statute, on the right, followed by the stone head sculptures found Easter Island, which is a little tiny island a ways west off the coast of Chile in South America, and this large steel sculpture example titled "The Angel of the North", which is located in England.
Sculpture can further be categorized based upon the manner in which it was created. There are three forms we're going to learn about-- additive, subtractive, and assemblage sculpture. Now, additive-- just like it sounds-- refers to the addition of a raw material, like metal or clay, in order to create a sculpture.
And in the example on the right, is an example of additive sculpture. It's a metal cast. But casting can also be-- it doesn't have to be just metal. It can be plaster or wax, for example. But casting and modeling are good examples of additive sculpture.
Now, subtractive-- guess what? Subtractive is the opposite of additive in that the sculpture is created by removing material. And I'll show you an example of that in just a moment. But carving in wood or stone is a good example of this.
And assemblage is formed from the root word assemble. It means to construct a sculpture from objects that are found. Now, to help you in avoiding confusion with additive, which can sometimes happen because they sound sort of the same, think of assemblages being formed from materials that used to be something else, like tin cans or popsicle sticks, rather than raw materials, like metal or clay.
And here are some examples of all three on the right. The first one, as I mentioned before, is a bronze casting of a deer. And here's just an example of the types of molds that would be used when forming castings. This marble sculpture of Moses would be an example of subtractive sculpture. And this last piece would be an example of assemblage. Notice how it's been put together from various objects that were already something else.
Well, that's the end of the short lesson today. Let's take a look at our objectives again and see how we did. Now that you've seen the lesson, are you able to identify different types of sculpture? Can you explain that sculptures differ according to medium or the material used? And can you explain the difference between additive, subtractive, and assemblage sculpture? And once again, the big idea is that sculpture's a three-dimensional type of artwork made by adding, removing, or assembling almost any type of material.
Well, that's it for today. I'd like to thank you for joining me. And I'll see you next time.
