"New Sculptures." (Middelheim, Antwerp, Belgium)MIDDELHEIM The city of Antwerp, the cultural capital of Europe in 1993, has maintained an out door sculpture park in Middenheim since 1950. There are about 450 works--ranging from Rodin to Calder to Zadkine--in the impressive Arenal, a large park with wooded and meadow areas. This exhibition of new sculptures The New Sculpture refers to a movement in late-nineteenth century British sculpture. After a protracted period of a stylized neoclassicism, sculpture in the last quarter of the century began to explore a greater degree of naturalism and wider range of subject matter. is limited to one area of the park and serves to update the holdings in contemporary sculpture. Ten contemporary artists--Isa Genzken, Harald Klingelholler, Per Kirkeby Per Kirkeby (born September 1, 1938) is a Danish painter, poet, filmmaker and sculptor Biography 1962 Studies at the Experimental Art School in Copenhagen; works in the School on painting, graphic arts, 8 millimeter films and performance pieces , Richard Deacon For the actor Richard Deacon, see . For the popular historian Donald McCormick, who also wrote under the pseudonym Richard Deacon, see . Richard Deacon CBE (born 15 August 1949) is a British sculptor. , Panamarenko, Didier Vermeiren, Thomas Schutte, Bernd Lohaus, Matt Mullican, and Juan Munoz--placed their sculptures (permanently) in confrontation with the natural elements Natural Elements was the second major label release by Acoustic Alchemy. The shortest of all of the band's albums, only comprising eight tracks, Natural Elements set out to show what the title suggests: the organic side to Acoustic Alchemy's music. of the park The results were mixed. On the one hand, there is the artists' subjective interpretation of the formal interplay between art and nature. On the other, the exhibition is a theoretical event that aspires to other levels. Sculpture in nature--its presence and consumption by the viewer--is presented as a closed system. For example in Genzken's prosaic Fenster (Window, 1993), the formal traces the terrain of nature, so that it is heightened by the work; still, complex layers of reflection are opened. But sculpture seems to be in a postnatural state in whic the formal elements are empty. Through layers of reflection, art works toward presenting nature as a spiritual image. Mullican's pictograms point symbolically to the secret cycles of spiritual life in relation to the cycles of nature. His point of departure is the topographical elements of the surrounding area. The symbolic scheme places sculpture and spirit on a higher plane of artistic abstraction. Richard Deacon's Never Mind, 1993, unmasks the sculptural form of nature by disturbing or even destroying its stability. Deacon's large-scale work made of wood refers directly to the site while at the same time rejecting it. This object is completely unnatural; formally perfect in shape, it opens our minds t something unknown and beautiful, untouched by human hands Untouched by Human Hands (no ISBN) is a collection of science fiction short stories by Robert Sheckley, published in 1954. It includes:
In the final analysis any common ground among the sculptures--despite all abstract reflections--is vehemently rejected. Schutte's Tausend Zungen (Thousan tongues, 1993) is perhaps the best ex ample that through the subjective art depicts nature and makes it a palpable Easily perceptible, plain, obvious, readily visible, noticeable, patent, distinct, manifest. The term palpable usually refers to some type of egregious wrong, such as a governmental error or abuse of power. experience. One thousand tongues, each individually fashioned by Schutte, hang on the branches of a tree. Mimesis mimesis /mi·me·sis/ (mi-me´sis) the simulation of one disease by another.mimet´ic mi·me·sis n. 1. The appearance of symptoms of a disease not actually present, often caused by hysteria. , evocation EVOCATION, French law. The act by which a judge is deprived of the cognizance of a suit over which he had jurisdiction, for the purpose of conferring on other judges the power of deciding it. This is done with us by writ of certiorari. , and also the individuality of art and the artist are placed in a natural cycle. |
|
||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion