American 20-21st Century Sculpture

 

Click here for more articles and essays on this subject published in 1998-2000.

 

From other web sites:

Rose Bowl Floats from NPR's Weekend Edition, Saturday, December 29, 2001. Susan Stamberg talks with Rose Bowl float designer Raul Rodriguez about his many creations.
 
Arizona Highways Television is a series of programs devoted to exploring the highways and byways of Arizona. The television programs were created in the spirit of Arizona Highways magazine, a division of the Arizona Department of Transportation. Arizona Highways Television was created in partnership with The Arizona Republic. Programs include the whimsical steel sculptures of David Voisard, an Amado sculptor. (September 24, 2005)
 
Blip.tv presents Ron Mueck, filmed during Ron Mueck's residency at The National Gallery, London. The exhibition Ron Mueck was on view at the Brooklyn Museum, November 3, 2006-February 4, 2007. Video courtesy of The National Gallery, London. Another video on sculpture is titled Community Artist: Dan Gerhart which was produced, from start to finish, within a 4-day workshop by new filmmakers at FilmTreks.com.
 
KCET, the Los Angeles PBS affiliate, presents the Life & Times series covering a broad array of happenings and stories about greater Los Angeles. Life & Times includes an arts section with numerous videos and transcripts. In Robert Graham, Life & Times host Val Zavala profiles and interviews Robert Graham, a renowned figurative sculptor, in a segment dedicated to the artist.
 
Kentucky Educational Television offers a series of 1/2 hour videos from Mixed, a weekly arts series from 2003 through the present:
Program 614: Sculptor Zoé Strecker, Lexington wood sculptor Philip Hultgren, and the music of Louisville's Ochion Jewell Quartet
Program 711: Dolls by artist/sculptor Becky Collings, holiday creations by Louisville-area designers, and vocal ensemble Coterie.
Program 712: Sculptor Tim Lewis, Bybee Pottery, and Louisville-based post-folk band Valley
Program 718: Wood carver LaVon Williams; the African American Theatre Program at the University of Louisville; the "Recovering Is a Beautiful Thing" art exhibit; and music by the Big Maracas, a Latin band from Lexington
 
The Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum at Saginaw Valley State University presents two videos on the art of sculptor Marshall M. Fredericks and the bronze sculpture process.
 
The Metropolitan Museum of Art web site contains several video presentations. In two 2005 video clips the Met introduces the 25 foot tall large-scale sculpture Plantoir and Corridor Pin, Blue by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje Van Bruggen, installed on the roof of the museum.
 
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa presents Claes Oldenburg from "Meet the Artist" series with video clips
 
WGBH/Boston presents a 3-minute QuickTime video clip in which John Wilson talks about his sculpture Eternal Presence, being installed on the lawn of the National Center of Afro-American Artists in Roxbury. The original airdate of the program containing the segment was October 1, 1987. In another 2 1/2 minute clip, artist Sidewalk Sam works with Boston schoolchildren to create a mural.

 

TFAO also suggests these DVD or VHS videos:

Augustus Saint Gaudens: An American Original is a 28 minute 1995 video from Direct Cinema Limited directed by Paul G. Sanderson III. This video draws on photographs, letters, literary documents and the artist's works -- which are found in major cities, public parks and museums throughout the United States -- to create a beautiful and informative portrait of a neglected giant of American art. Centering on the artist's adopted home of Cornish, New Hampshire, the film is an excellent introduction to the man and his times, and to the work that helped a weary nation begin to make sense of the war that almost tore it apart. Available through Currier Museum of Art.
 
Augustus Saint-Gaudens: Masque of the Golden Bowl. 1 hour. Available through Currier Museum of Art.
 
Augustus Saint-Gaudens: Master of American Sculpture is a hour-long documentary released in 2007 and directed by award-winning filmmaker Paul Sanderson. The film tells the sculptor's life story through the voices of art historians, with on-camera observations of the artist and his works including both historic and contemporary footage, combined with original and period music. The documentary covers Saint-Gaudens' life from his childhood in Manhattan, through his rise to prominence during the Gilded Age, to his legacy as one of this country's greatest sculptors. Utilizing state-of-the-art high definition, wide-screen technology, the film takes advantage of the latest research about Saint-Gaudens and his art, and reveals his greatest public monuments in ways never seen before. The film is produced by the Trustees of the Saint-Gaudens Memorial with assistance from the Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site. Director Paul G. Sanderson has won over 30 national awards, including seven CINE Golden Eagles with films that have appeared on PBS, The Discovery Channel, The History Channel, NBC, and other networks. He has been a consultant for PBS's American Masters series. His films have been shown at Lincoln Center, the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the American Museum of Natural History and Radio City Music Hall. Most recently he was the principal cinematographer and consultant on a two-part special for both Frontline and American Experience on the Mormon religion titled "The Mormons," which recently aired on PBS. He also produced a documentary on the pioneering Brazilian aviator Alberto Santos-Dumont entitled "Wings of Madness," that was broadcast last fall on PBS's Nova. The Saint-Gaudens documentary will be broadcast on New Hampshire Public Television in the fall of 2007. Additional regional film premieres are scheduled at the Smithsonian American Art Museum on September 7, 2007, Metropolitan Museum of Art on September 23, 2007, Philadelphia Museum of Art on September 30, 2007, and the Art Institute of Chicago on March 8, 2008, with other locations anticipated.
 
David Hostetler: The Last Dance, produced by Too Much Media LLC, a 30-minute version of the documentary features Hostetler's entire body of work, with a focus on "The Last Dance," a recent sculpture that is in the David Hostetler, Wood and Bronze Sculpture exhibition that opened Oct. 12, 2007 at the Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum at SVSU. Producer Keith Newman and director Casey Hayward were given unlimited access to Hostetler and his vast archives; their film is the first documentary to feature him. An accomplished sculptor, Hostetler's work has been included in over 200 group shows and has been the subject of one-person exhibitions in galleries and museums throughout the United States. His work also is in numerous public collections, including Trump International Hotel & Tower, New York; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Kennedy Library, Boston; Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio; Columbus (Ohio) Museum of Art; Milwaukee (Wis.) Museum; Speed Museum, Louisville, Ky.; Montgomery (Ala.)Museum of Fine Art; and De Cordova Museum, Lincoln, Mass. "You will see the process from the moment the tree is cut down to the finished product, a beautiful female form, one of David's stunning women," said Newman. Newman and Hayward plan to show their documentary at film festivals, gallery shows, and on public broadcasting stations following the premiere. David Hostetler is a graduate of Indiana University and was awarded a Master of Fine Arts degree from Ohio University where he taught for 37 years. He retired from teach as a full professor of sculpture in 1985 and is now Professor Emeritus.  Hostetler's art career spans 60 years and his showing in the Fredericks Sculpture Museum marks his first Michigan exhibition (right: David Hostetler in his studio, Athens, OH, photo by Larry Hamill Lambert. Photo courtesy of Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum)
 
Duane Hanson: An Interview: 30 minutes 1977. "Super-Realist sculptor Duane Hanson talks about the development of his art. He explains his early beginnings, his education in the Midwest, his New York years, his worldwide success, and his work in Florida. In this 1977 interview, he also discusses the relationship of his art to America's materialistic suburban culture."
 
Duane Hanson in His Studio: 30 minutes 1977. "In this program, as 20th-century sculptor Duane Hanson works on a figure, he describes his methods and techniques of construction. He shows how he selects and poses the model, makes a plaster mold directly from the live model, casts the plaster body molds with a polyester-resin and fiberglass substance, and paints the completed cast. He also demonstrates how he positions the glass eyes, meticulously inserts strands of hair, chooses clot
 
Hyper-Realist Sculpture: Duane Hanson/John DeAndrea. This 28 mlnute 2001 Paul Tschinkel program looks at two artists who have helped define the hyper-realist style of sculpture. Duane Hanson works from casts to create figures that are startlingly convincing. His subjects are everyday people who reflect Hanson's interest In the "common denominators" of life. John DeAndrea's supremely accurate nude figures carry on a fascination with the human form that dates back to the ancient Greeks. A Hanson retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art and a DeAndrea exhibition at the OK Harris Gallery In Soho are featured. From the ART/new york series.
 
Isamu Noguchi.(Portrait of an Artist) Follows the twentieth-century Japanese-American sculptor Isamu Noguchi around the world for more than a year filming his global artistic adventures. Examines his early life in Japan and his education in the United States which formed a fusion between East and West and fostered the universality of his creative efforts. c1980. 55 min. Video/C 6321 Available from Media Resources Center, Library, University of California, Berkeley.
 
Isamu Noguchi: Stones and Paper is a 56 minute DVD described by the Japanese American National Museum as follows: "This video appeared in the National Museum's 2004 exhibition Isamu Noguchi and Modern Japanese Ceramics. It is a timeless retrospective on the life and career of Isamu Noguchi, whose bi-national heritage sent him back and forth between Japan and America seeking a new artistic synthesis... He started his career in Paris as Constantin Brancusi's apprentice. He made his name in New York. And, after World War II, he brought a fresh modernist wind to Japan, putting his mark on Japanese ceramics, gardens, and paper lanterns. His late masterworks -- rough stone monoliths that echo both Brancusi and the Zen garden of Ryoanji -- marry East and West in an absolutely original way."
 
Isamu Noguchi: The Sculpture of Spaces is a 53 minute DVD described by the Japanese American National Museum as follows: "Isamu Noguchi often said that the space around a thing is as important as the thing itself. This classic program shows Noguchi turning landscapes into participatory works of art as it follows in dramatic detail the struggle to bring his ideas to fruition at Miami's Bayfront Park and at Moere Numa Park, outside Sapporo... His austere sets for Martha Graham, which helped define modern dance, and his UNESCO garden in Paris, which shaped earth, water, and greenery into a series of multisensory surprises, are featured as well. A brilliant glimpse of an artist at work."
 
Public Sculpture: America's Legacy. Sculptures are presented and then the audience is taken on a 29 minute tour to see and understand how each work functions in a public place. In this way both the nature of the work and its role In history is cerefully elucidated.
 
Saint Gaudens: Masque of the Golden Bowl. A lush 60 minute dramatization of the life and work of Augustus Saint Gaudens, pre-eminent sculptor of the American Renaissance, as seen and recorded In his own words and those of his contemporaries. Shot on Location in Boston, New York and New Hampshire. Produced in association with the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
 
Sculptor Marshall M. Fredericks is a 1 hour autobiographical documentary of Fredericks' life and work; produced by Southfield Cable 15. The artist relates his life story and discusses dozens of his sculptures. Vintage footage of installation and dedication of The Spirit of Detroit. Christ on the Cross, and the Cleveland Fountain is interspersed with recent views of these and other sculptures. Available from Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum.
 
Sculptors at Storm King: Shaping American Art (47 minutes). The 400-acre Storm King Art Center is America's premier outdoor museum of post-1945 sculpture. Through interviews, archival footage and film clips of sculptors in action, this program offers a glimpse into the creative process of some of the century's most influential artists. Featured sculptors include David Smith, Louise Nevelson, Alexander Calder, Isamu Noguchi, Kenneth Snelson, Mark di Suvero and Richard Serra. Shown in conjunction with Material Terrain: A Sculptural Exploration of Landscape and Place held at the Columbia Museum of Art July 6 - August 26, 2007. Contact the museum at 803-799-2810 or http://www.colmusart.org.
 
Shaw Memorial: The Power and Glory of Public Art, The "Augustus Saint-Gaudens' original plaster cast of the Shaw Memorial, installed in the National Gallery, is the focus for discussions among historians, curators, educators, and descendants of members of the Massachusetts Fifty-fourth Regiment of African Americans who fought in the Civil War. The program tells us about the history, literary connections, and artistic significance of the sculpture as an artwork and a national monument. Archival photographs, documents, and location footage of related sites provide additional content." .This 52 minute video is lent free of charge through the National Gallery of Art's Division of Education (go to NGA Loan Materials)
 
Torn Notebook is a 60-minute documentary about the design and building of Torn Notebook, from GPN, Lincoln, NE. In 1997, a major Oldenburg/van Bruggen work, Torn Notebook, commissioned by the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery and Sculpture Garden was installed on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus in Lincoln, Nebraska.
 
Vinnie Ream: Lincoln's Young Sculptor is a 1 hour video by Hi-Country Media Productions that has aired on PBS stations. Click here to view the script of the video and an image of the VHS cover from the vinnieream.com website, which says of the video: "Vinnie Ream was the first woman and the youngest artist to ever receive a commission from the United States Congress for a statue of the true-to-life marble figure of Abraham Lincoln that stands in the U.S. Capitol rotunda. The work and its artist generated a storm of controversy...Miss Ream was given the coveted job over many experienced competitors in 1866 when the art prodigy was only 18 years old. This video documentary presents Miss Ream's inspiring story and ardent philosophy of life. It surveys the fantastic career of one of American history's most gifted women. Based on the illustrated biography, A Labor of Love, by Glenn V. Sherwood."
 
Viola Frey: Memory Assembled. When Viola Frey died in 2004 she left behind a rich and complex legacy layered by the enigmatic quality of her person. Widely recognized as a leading figurative sculptor of the late 20th century, Frey's monumental achievement lies in successfully expressing her artistic vision through a highly personal iconography and in the extraordinarily rich diversity of her work. Viola Frey: Memory Assembled is an exploration of the life and work of this remarkable woman. Begun prior to her death, the film incorporates original footage of Frey, and interviews with her artistic peers, eminent art historians and curators. From her childhood in Lodi, California through her education as a painter and ceramicist and her career as an artist and educator, Frey's impact on the art world is discussed and lauded. Director, David Bransten. 2006. 36 min. DVD 6788 Available from Media Resources Center, Library, University of California, Berkeley.

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