Week 8 assignment: essay – interrelationships reflection apa format | Applied Sciences homework help

5. How important is the concept of truth to materials for these sculptors?

116 FIGURE 5-25 Maternity Figure (Bwanga bwa Cibola) 19th-early 20th century. Democratic Republic of the Congo, Luluwa peoples. Wood, metal ring, H. 9¾ × W. 3 × D. 2½ inches. (24.8 × 7.6 × 6.4 cm). Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection, Bequest of Nelson A. Rockefeller, Accession number: 1979.206.282. African spiritual pieces such as this inspired modern European painters in the early twentieth century. ©The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Art Resource, NY jac16871_ch05_091-120.indd 116 12/11/17 11:39 AM 117

SCULPTURE

Sculpture In puBlIc placeS Sculpture has traditionally shared its location with major buildings, sometimes act- ing as decoration on the building, as in many churches, or acting as a center point of interest, as in the original placement of Michelangelo’s David, which was posi- tioned carefully in front of the Palazzo Vecchio, the central building of the Floren- tine government. It stood as a warning not to underestimate the Florentines. Many small towns throughout the world have public sculpture that commemorates wars or other important events. One of the most popularly successful of contemporary public sculptures has been Maya Ying Lin’s Vietnam Veterans Memorial (Figure 5-27) in Washington, D.C. Because the Vietnam War was both terribly unpopular and a major defeat, there were fears that any memorial might stir public antagonism. However, the result has been quite the opposite. The piece is a sloping black granite wall, V-shaped, which descends ten feet below grade. On the wall are engraved the names of more than 58,000 dead Americans. Visitors walk along its length, absorbing the seemingly endless list of names. The impact of the memorial grows in part because the list of names grows with each step down the slope. Visitors respond to the memorial by touching the names, sometimes taking rubbings away with them, sometimes simply weeping. Maya Lin’s Vietnam Veterans Memorial was a controversial public sculpture when it was first unveiled but has become a most popular attraction both in its place in Washington, D.C., and as a replica tours around the country. Judy Chicago’s The FIGURE 5-27 Maya Ying Lin, Vietnam Veterans Memorial. 1982. Black granite, V-shaped, 493 feet long, 10 feet high at center. Washington, D.C. Lin designed the memorial when she was an undergraduate. One angle of the wall points to the Washington Monument, the other to the Lincoln Memorial. Its V shape below the ground was intended to suggest a wound in the earth. Incised on it are the names of 58,256 fallen American warriors. ©David Noble jac16871_ch05_091-120.indd 117 12/11/17 11:39 AM 118

CHAPTER 5

Dinner Party (Figure 5-28), in the midst of a powerful wave of feminist activity in the late 1970s, was celebrated by feminists and denounced by opponents of the move- ment. Although it is not public sculpture in the sense that it is on view outdoors, it once toured the country and attracted huge crowds. It is now in the permanent collection of the Brooklyn Museum of Art. The sculpture includes place settings for thirty-nine mythic and historical women such as Ishtar, Hatshepsut, Sacagawea, Mary Wollstonecraft, Sojourner Truth, Emily Dickinson, and Virginia Woolf. Each place setting has embroidery, napkins, place settings, and a plate with a butterfly design that alludes to female genitalia—one reason for protest against the work. Judy Chicago oversaw the project, but it is the work of many women working in crafts traditionally associated with women, such as sewing and embroidery. Study (with imagination) Serra’s Sequence (Figure 5-29), four huge torqued Cor- Ten steel plates installed in the garden of the Museum of Modern Art in summer 2007. We are—as never before—immersed in sculptural space. At both ends we have the chance of entering through one of two openings—one leads into a containment center of settled space; the other pulls us into a seemingly endless curvilinear cor- ridor between two brutal, looming steel walls. Yet strangely, if we wait, we see on the steel intriguing textures and beautiful orange-rust patterns sculpted by time. Still we may feel compressed, confused, perhaps even a touch fearful. To go back is not necessarily an appealing option, for the spaces are narrow, and where are we, anyhow? Normal spatial perception is undermined. The walls appear to close both behind and over us. They seem to sway, and so does the floor. At last we come to the center, overcome with wonder. FIGURE 5-28 Judy Chicago, The Dinner Party. 1979. Mixed media, each side 48 feet. Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, Brooklyn Museum. The Dinner Party consists of thirty-nine place settings for important women of myth and history. The work was produced under the direction of Judy Chicago by a collective of women sewing, embroidering, and weaving to complement the elaborately designed plates. ©2017 Judy Chicago/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo courtesy of Judy Chicago/Art Resource, NY jac16871_ch05_091-120.indd 118 12/11/17 11:41 AM 119

SCULPTURE

PERCEPTION KEY Public Sculpture 1. Public sculpture such as that by Maya Lin, Judy Chicago, and Richard Serra usually produces tremendous controversy when it is not representative, such as a con- ventional statue of a man on a horse, a hero holding a rifle and flag, or a person of local fame. What do you think causes these more abstract works to attract contro- versy? Do you react negatively or positively to any of these three works?