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Form is a three dimensional response to volume. When one talks about the form of an

object, that person is referring to the fullness, the three-dimensionality of that object.

Thinking in terms of drawing, form is the translation of the characteristics of what is

happening between the lines: The inside of an object, the positive spaces, and the

negative spaces. Drawing can be broad; it has many things it has to deal with- line,

composition, figure/ground relationships, focal point, color, etc. The line work of

drawings can be either objective, revealing the physical nature of the object; subjective,

revealing the personal attitudes and emotions of the artist, or a combination of the two.

Think how personally we know the emotional intensity of Vincent Van Gogh through his

treatment of such a mundane object as a little wicker chair.

Sculpture too exists on these levels. By nature, sculpture is very specific. It’s very much

about forming an object, having three dimensions, existing in space, but, of course, it will

also take on the personality and the thoughts of the artist who is crafting the piece.

Leonardo Da Vinci attempted to establish that art is a mental activity and a science,

searching for objective reality. On the other hand, we know that art is an expressive act,

relating directly to the subjective experiences of the artist, springing from an “inner

necessity” as Kandinsky pointed out. Searching for the structural form of an object is an

intellectual part of the objective processes of seeing. Feeling the emotional form of that

object is also an important part of artmaking.

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The sculptors represented here at the Norton Simon Museum all have real thought behind

their life-long work. Art is never accidental and arbitrary- the great artist is always

purposeful and focused.

There are undoubtedly two ways of drawing visible things- by using outlines to define

them precisely, or by treating the planes and curved surfaces as masses through surface

directional lines, values, and tones.

The lines are either drawn on a flat plane, as a drawing, or in a three dimensional space,

as a sculpture. The way the artist thinks of the object in relation to the space around it is a

key decider on his approach to the work. Frank Gehry, the architect for Disney Hall, used

sculptural principles when designing this building. Just as any good sculpture, this

building activates the space around it

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Form and space stand in a complimentary relationship to each other. It is necessary to be

aware of the space around an object in order to fully understand and see the object itself.

For instance, with a piece of furniture the ins and outs of space-- the negative areas

(between the legs, through the arms, etc.) contribute quite strongly to the design sense of

the object, something every designer must think about.

The same is true with both drawing and sculpture. The negative space around the form is

just as important in many cases to the object itself as it is to the composition of the work.

Barbara Hepworth is a sculptor who is as concerned as much about the space around the

sculpture as about the sculpture itself. The space can activate the sculpture and visa versa.

Isamu Noguchi the same way.

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Richard Diebenkorn’s painting of Berkely#24 has also

merged the figure/ground relationship. Here you can see

that his creative interest in the spatial environment was

almost as great as his analytical and inventive attitude

toward the objects within his landscape.

If you look at your outstretched hand and stare at your fingers, you will see the intervals

of empty space between them. Those shapes of empty space are only visible because your

fingers are allowing them to exist. As your fingers move, they change shape as well. The

awareness of the visibility of empty space also expands the awareness of the surface of

the forms and their relationship to the negative areas around them.

Henry Moore is a master of

presenting to the world a

human figure that is as

conscious of the space that

surrounds it as the figure is

of itself.

His works deal with the

negative spaces equally as

much as the positive

spaces.

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If you look at Henry Moore’s drawings, you will see that he is not thinking about human

form as being realistic, but rather he is thinking about shapes morphing into a figure by

virtue of the “essentialness” of the figure and its relationships with its surrounding space.

Negative areas between the legs, for instance, become just as fascinating an area as the

shape of the legs themselves.

In Pablo Picasso’s drawing series of “The Bull”, he

starts with the idea of the bull as a tangible mass,

heavy and real in form and function. He finally

progresses to the essential elements of the bull,

drawn linearly and designed as its minimal essential

lines.

Imagining his last bull drawing as a sculpture, helps

us understand the artists’ deliberate creation of

space to define mass. From the first drawing to the

last, Picasso eliminates more and more of the

formal, physical, properties of the bull, until he

ultimately comes to lines that signify surface and

mass and weight.

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In much the same way Brancusi with his “Bird in

Space” sculpture kept the essentialness of the flight

of a bird, eliminating all the extra things that would

slow the speed of the sculpture down…

Bird in Space embodies Brancusi’s belief that “What

is real is not the external form, but the essence of

things,” Bird in Space represents the essence of

flight. It is the essence of a pure, simple, and perfect

linear form.

Of course, always included in an artist’s working

method is the life he/she imparts on the work. A line

can be lyrical, quiet, forceful, and angry. Form also can be emotionally removed, or

absolutely loaded with emotion.

In the case of Rodin, his work in the

early 20th century took a different path

than his academic predecessors- the

more academic, impersonal sculptures

of the late 18th and 19th century Europe.

Rodin’s work cannot be viewed without

feeling the internal emotion of his

subjects, an idea that opened the way for

art to grow and change away from the

conventional. His sculptures are

contorted, the poses more extreme, the

emotions raw. His sculptures are quite forceful and have an interior life of their own.

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Compare Clodion’s sculpture of “A Bacchante Supported

by Bacchus” to Rodin’s “Burghers of Calais”. Clodion’s

work is an anatomical masterpiece, yet nowhere in the

gesture of the bodies or in the faces do we get an

emotional sense of the characters. Rodin’s work is all

about emotional content. From his use of gesture and

modeling we feel a very strong sense of emotion in every

one of Rodin’s sculptures.

Degas, as well, had a real sense of presence about his

work. His sculptures were not meant as a means to

themselves, but rather for him, they were three

dimensional studies of his subjects he intended to paint.

For Degas, gesture and the fullness of form were what he

searched for in his sculptures. Rodin took his work a step

further in imbuing each work with a life of its own. He

would talk about how he would try to catch the pose to be

“between” poses, having both of sense of the movement

prior and the movement after.

In terms of organic form, Rodin said “when you carve, never see the form in length , but

always in thickness. Never consider a surface except as the extremity of a volume, as the

point, more or less large, which it directs toward you.”

An example of this principle is related when Rodin was watching another sculptor model

foliage. He told the sculptor that all his leaves are seen flat, which is why they didn’t look

real. Instead, he said, to make some with the tips pointed toward you, so that, in seeing

them, one has the sensation of depth.

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Rodin said about his figures, “… instead of imagining the different parts of a body as

surfaces more or less flat, represent them as projectures of interior volumes. He said “I

forced myself to express in each swelling of the torso or of the limbs the efflorescence of

a muscle or of a bone which lay deep beneath the skin. And so the truth of my figures,

instead of being merely superficial, seems to blossom from within to the outside, like life

itself.”

Wilhelm Lehmbruck was an admirer of Rodin and eventually developed a sculptural style

his own about the same time as the art deco era was coming into fashion. The inclined

Head of “The Kneeling Woman” shows influence of both Rodin and the stylistic

influences of the elongated Art Deco style.

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Aristide Maillol’s sculpture

“Standing Bather with Raised Arms”

and “River” still have the influence of

conventional form, but diverge into a

more linear translation of the body.

His work, compared to Rodin’s is

more graphic and designed; more of

an intellectual form than Rodin’s pure

emotional form.

Looking at Marino Marini’s drawings show an easy

translation into his sculptures. His drawings of the horse and rider are linear and without

volume. He wasn’t concerned about the realistic nature of the human form- it would have

distracted from the overall feel of his work. Instead his sculptures are essentially his line

drawings filled in. Notice how Marini’s “Horseman” has a quiet, reflective nature. It

presents a unified overall calmness undistracted by detail. Each line, continuous and

unbroken, shapes both space and form into specific, delineated elements which are still

and unmonumental in nature.

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Speaking of economy of line and form, Alberto Giacometti sculpture “Tall

Figure IV” is misleadingly simple. With its tall frailness and it’s bumpy,

roughly textured heavy bronze he embodies both the frailness of the human

body and its solidity. Alberto Giacometti is, both because of the nature of

his work and because of his close friendship with the philosopher Jean-Paul

Sartre, the artist most closely identified with the Existentialist movement.

Part of his art-historical importance springs from his defense of figuration

at a time when the advantage was with abstract art. His work is a curious

combination of flat linear form and three-dimensional organic form

Jacques Lipchitz was the sculptor of the Cubism Movement; an

art movement which took place in the early 20th century and was

led by the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso and the French artist

Georges Braque. A nonobjective school of painting and sculpture

developed in Paris in the early 20th century, characterized by the

reduction and fragmentation of natural forms into abstract, often

geometric structures usually rendered as a set of discrete planes.

In his sculpture “The Figure”, Lipchitz takes his flat linear form

into the third dimension of sculpture.

One can think about sculpture in the very classic art sense of it being an extension of

drawing. Whether it has the linear qualities of a pencil line or the volumetric space of a

tonal drawing, it exists in space. One can look at it as an artwork that is contained with

lines and edges or a work that is growing from its core. Regardless of its linear and/or

organic qualities, it always interacts with us, the public, in a very tangible way. Because ,

unlike drawing and painting, it exists in the same space we occupy, it changes our

environment and the way the art relates to us on a personal level.

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Sculpture almost stands in between two diametrics, drawing and architecture.

Around 1900 famous art historian August Schmarsow made this distinction: sculpture is

the "shaper of bodies" and architecture the “shaper of space". Soon though, Architecture

began to be more plastic and sculptural, and sculpture began to be less about the body

and more about the space it creates. Thus, spurred on by Cubism, in 1912 Alexander

Archipenko in cutting a hole in his Walking Woman attempted to fuse mass, volume, and

empty space. Sculpture became more constructive and tectonic, establishing a connection

with the geometric designs of the International Style represented by such architects as

Vantongerloo and Mies van der Rohe. At the same time, architecture was becoming more

sculptural. The opposite poles of hard geometric modernism--early Le Corbusier and

Mies van der Rohe--and soft, organic biomorphic expressiveness create a dialogue

between Expressionist and rationalistic architecture. The contrast between organic and

geometric and between body and space is one in which sculpture, drawing, and

architecture blur.

"Why, it is my studio!" exclaimed Constantin Brancusi upon first seeing the Manhattan

skyline from a ship in 1926. The agglomeration of cubical skyscrapers reminded him of

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the geometric pedestals with their luminous bronze figures that the Romanian sculptor

kept in his studio in Paris.

Says Brancussi, “Real architecture is sculpture.”

And I might add “Real sculpture is architecture and drawing combined.”

Cindy Jackson

www.cjacksonsculpture.com

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