Sculpting Without a Brain

At the beginning of XX century western sculpture divided itself, but not like a happy amoeba into two healthy offsprings wagging their flagella. It divided into figurative sculpture which continued what Della Robbia or Donatello meant by “sculpture” and

Modern sculpture, a kind of tyranny of idiocy, which quickly became the only allowable kind of sculpture to be promoted by the mind-guardians of officially approved values.

From the outside, from Mars looking with fresh eyes at any example of modern sculpture there is absolutely no chance that by gathering all our inner resources and confronting such sight we could react to it by declaring truthfully that it is beautiful, moving us  or that it is enriching, augmenting our lives. It is quite audaciously a piece of junk elevated on a pedestal to bask in unearned glory.

The sculptor-di Suvero.

Recent quality control commission of the Food and Drug Administration conducted an astute study of alphabet soup content .The head of the commission, prof. Ursino Crepusculatti showed the astonishing array of rejects they found there. “Truncated, malformed and not conforming to any known alphabet!” was his conclusion. Here are some choice examples:

The onion rings’ author Tom Sayre

The arctic excreta are by John Searles, while the blushing red beautie is by Alex diAmbrosio.

Now that I refreshed your memory of modern sculpture I want to turn toward some general remarks regarding Form, because in the field of sculpture form is as pronounced as color is upon encounter with painting. In confronting a sculpture the presence of form is the first awareness and whatever follows the form is disclosing it, giving it. So, the sculptor is a Form-Poet. I believe a dancer would most readily understand that, because a dancer carries her dance at all times. She has her forms in motion fully incorporated and throughout her whole body. Sculptor feels his forms across his tensed body: they are not simply stored like tubs of Crisco but teeming with potential, pent-up kinetics and in the process of sculpting he gives each form its energetic qualities.

There is no form to be found that is equal to beauty of natural form. This truth has been challenged by artist of Modern art and the proof of their colossal failure is evident even to children. What Modern sculpture found is a repository of hostile geometries, orthogonal steel-traps, sometimes called “metallic turds”{Tom Wolfe}which are not addressed to us but to insects that seem not  to mind inhuman aesthetics.

Second Part will show a selection of figurative sculpture of the XX century that will enchant you and perhaps will make you angry knowing that every museum in the country and elsewhere is clogged with sculptures like this

No mistake here-it is a “new” acquisition for the Hirschhorn Museum entitled “For Gordon Bunshaft” by Dan Graham. Yes, it is not an ugly vent for prison below, but a “sculpture” selected I am sure after long weeks of careful deliberations and discussions to assure the public would get access to the pinnacles of our artistic achievements, because they say “proud nation deserves great art”.

By the way- some of the titles of the sculptures might be inaccurate and the FDA report ,as they often do , imagined too.