Na nowo patrzeć i dotykać? Znaczenie tradycyjnych materiałów w plastyce współczesnej na przykładzie użycia alabastru w XX i XXI w. (cz. I)

• Authors: Lipińska Aleksandra

Title variants

EN

To look and touch anew? The meaning of traditional materials in modern sculpture. On the example of alabaster in the 20th and 21st centuries (part I)

• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

The paper discusses the issue of artistic attitudes towards traditional materials in the era of crucial changes the sculpture medium has witnessed from the beginning of the 20th century. This problem is presented on the example of alabaster: material, which has been artistically used since antiquity. Its natural properties, as well as its relationship with other important materials (e. g. marble), became a starting point for the creation of certain cultural notions and symbolic associations attached to alabaster in the course of time. The question: if and how alabaster functions in modern sculpture arose from the long-term occupation of the author with the early modern alabaster sculpture and its symbolics. In the first part of the paper the summary of this research has been presented: next to sculptural properties (relative softness, translucency) and short overview of the typical genres where alabaster was applied (small-scale sculpture, relief, tomb sculpture, vessels, lamps), the main currents of opinion surrounding the material have been summarized (alabaster as a symbol of chastity, evangelical symbol of the human body of Christ, attribute of female body). From this perspective selected examples of the alabaster usage by important figures of modern sculpture have been discussed. The first part of the essay concerns the development in the 1st half of the 20th century, when alabaster found appreciation among the followers of the direct carving movement. The alabaster works of Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, John Skeaping and Jacob Epstein have been analysed in order to find out how these ‘progressive’ sculptors dealt with the material, which - especially in Great Britain - was loaded with tradition. The discussed examples show a wide range of attitudes: from the dialogue with traditional meanings (translucency and reaction on light as the sign of transcendence) to the exploration of entirely new potentials (alabaster as primal matter loaded with natural power of rocks and atavistic instincts).

Keywords

PL

rzeźba XX i XXI wieku; alabaster

• Publisher: Instytut Historii Sztuki, Uniwersytet Wrocławski
• Journal: Quart. Kwartalnik Instytutu Historii Sztuki Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego
• Year: 2009
• Issue: 3(13)
• Pages: 3-18
• Physical description: artykuł

Dates

published

2009

Contributors

author

Lipińska Aleksandra

References

• M. Wagner, Vorwort, [w:] M. Wagner (Hg.), Lexicon des Künstlerischen Materials. Werkstoffe der modernen Kunst von Abfall bis Zinn, München 2002
• O. Stiel, Alabaster, [w:] Otto Smitt (Hg.), Reallexicon zur Deutschen Kunstgeschichte, Bd. I, Stuttgart 1931
• Thomas Raff, Sprache der Materialien, München 2008
• N. Penny, The Materials of Sculpture, New Haven–London 1993,
• Słownik terminologiczny sztuk pięknych , pr. zb., pod red. K. Kubalskiej-Sulkiewicz i in., Warszawa 1996
• F. Cannan, Alabaster, [w:] M. Trusted (ed.), The making of sculpture. The materials and techniques of European sculpture, London 2007
• A. Lipińska (red.), Materiał rzeźby. Między techniką a semantyką / Material of sculpture. Between technique and semantics , Wrocław 2009
• C. Laviosa, Scultura Tardo-Etrusca di Volterra, Firenze 1964

Notes

PL