Category: sculpture

Izumi Sukeyuki

Izumi Sukeyuki, Snake and Frog Kimono, Wood Inlayed with Horn and Shakudo, Meiji Era, Late 19th Century, Japan

Sukeyuki lived in Omi Province, present-day Shiga Prefecture, in the town of Bamba. He was a master carver of butsudan or family Buddhist altars. On a visit to Hida-Takayama he was amazed to see the okimono and netsuke by the carver Sukemizu, and resolved to start carving similar pieces. Famous for his frog netsuke, Sukeyuki also used the Go or art name Gamatei Sukeyuki.

Sukeyuki’s kimono in the form of a hungry snake conversing with a plump frog, is carved from a single piece of wood. The eyesare  inlaid in horn and the snake’s tongue is made of shakudo. It is signed on the reverse with an inlaid seal form wood plaque,

Calendar: April 8

A Year: Day to Day Men: 8th of April

The Thrill of a New Day

The Greek statue Aphrodite of Milos, known as the Venus de Milo, is discovered on April 8, 1820.

The Venus de Milo is an ancient Greek marble statue believed to depict the goddess Aphrodite. It was initially attributed to the sculptor Praxiteles; however, from an inscription on its base, it is now thought to be sculpted by Alexandros of Antioch, a wandering artist who worked on commission. Created between 130-100 BC, it is slightly larger than life and widely known for the mystery of her missing arms. The goddess originally wore metal jewelry — bracelet, earrings, and headband — of which only the fixation holes remain.

The Venus statue is generally asserted as being discovered by Yorgos Kentrotas on April 8, 1820, inside a buried niche within the ancient city ruins of Milos on the island of Milos in the Aegean Sea, which at that time was a part of the Ottoman Empire. The statue was found in two large pieces (the upper torso and the lower draped legs) along with serveral pillars topped with sculpted heads, fragments of the upper left arm and the left hand holding an apple, and an inscribed plinth. Part of an arm and the original plinth was lost following the discovery.

In 1871, during the Paris Commune uprising, many public buildings were burned. The Venus de Milo statue was secreted out of the Louvre Museum in an oak crate and hidden in the basement of Prefecture of Police. Though the Prefecture was burned, the statue survived undamaged.

In the autumn of 1939, the Venus was packed for removal from the Louvre in anticipation of the outbreak of war. Scenery trucks from the theater Comédie-Française transported the Louvre’s masterpieces to safer locations in the French countryside. During World War II, the statue was sheltered safely in the Chateau de Valençay in the province of Berry, along with the two other sculptures, “Winged Victory of Samothrace” and Michelangelo’s “Slaves”.

When the discoverer, the farmer Yorgos Kentrotas, called upon a French naval officer to help him unearth the sculpture, it began a chain of events that eventually involved the Marquis de Rivière who presented the Venus de Milo to Louis XVIII, The king donated the sculpture to the Louvre the following year 1821 where this statue, a traditional example of Hellenistic sculpture, is on permanent display at the Louvre.

Ikebana Basket

Ikebana Basket (Gourd Shaped), Late Meiji Period, Split Bamboo with Tied Bamboo Rope, Japan

The Meiji Period of Japan extended from Ocotber 23, 1868 to July 30, 1912. This period corresponded to the reign of Emperor Meiji after 1868 to his death. It was the first half of the Empire of Japan during which Japanese society moved from being an isolated feudal society to its modern form, affecting social structure, politics, economy and foreign relations.

Ikeban is a the Japanese art of floral arrangement. Sculptural art baskets have been used since the inception of ikebana over 500 years ago to be one of the primary ikebana containers for the craft’s practitioners.  They range from randomly woven nested baskets to more formal, tailored pieces.

Amanda Parer

Amanda Parer, “Rabbits” from Her “Intrude” Series

Amanda Parer examines the relationship between humans and the natural world in her massive inflatable artworks. The Tasmania-based artist works with a team including New York based co-producer Chris Wangro. Together, Parer Studio realizes her larger-than-life versions of translucent rabbits, a series of works called” Intrude”.

The white fabric appears opaque during the day as it reflects sunlight. After dark, the creatures take on a different dimension: they are illuminated from within and reduce surrounding humans into diminutive silhouettes. Parer grew up in Australia, where rabbits are a non-native species and are considered a serious pest as opposed to a domestic pet.  Since being introduced by settlers in the late 18th century, their overpopulation has caused substantial ecological destruction.

“They represent the fairytale animals from our childhood – a furry innocence, frolicking through idyllic fields. Intrude deliberately evokes this cutesy image, and a strong visual humour, to lure you into the artwork only to reveal the more serious environmental messages in the work. They are huge, the size referencing ‘the elephant in the room’, the problem, like our environmental impact, big but easily ignored.”- Amanda Parer

Human-Headed Winged Lion

Human-Headed Winged Lion (Lamassu), 883-859 BC, Gypsum Alabaster, Nimrud (Ancient Kalhu), Mesopotamia, Metropolitan Museum of Art

From the ninth to the seventh century B.C., the kings of Assyria ruled over a vast empire centered in northern Iraq. The great Assyrian king Ashurnasirpal II ruling from 883 to 859 BC undertook a vast building program at Nimrud.

The new capital occupied an area of about nine hundred acres, around which Ashurnasirpal constructed a mudbrick wall that was 120 feet thick, 42 feet high, and five miles long. In the southwest corner of this enclosure was the acropolis, where the temples, palaces, and administrative offices of the empire were located. In 879 B.C. Ashurnasirpal held a festival for 69,574 people to celebrate the construction of the new capital.

Set at its gates were beasts of the mountains and seas, fashioned out of white limestone and alabaster. Among such stone beasts is the human-headed, winged lion pictured here. The horned cap attests to its divinity, and the belt signifies its power. The sculptor gave these guardian figures five legs so that they appear to be standing firmly when viewed from the front but striding forward when seen from the side. Lamassu protected and supported important doorways in Assyrian palaces.

Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva

Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva, Date Unknown, Location Unknown

“Two things are to be practiced on the level of relative bodhichitta: meditation on the equality of self and other, and meditation on the exchange of self and other. Without training in the former, the latter is impossible. This is why Shāntideva says that we should first meditate strenuously on equality of self and other; for without it, a perfectly pure altruistic attitude cannot arise. All beings, ourselves included, are in exactly the same predicament of wanting to be happy and not wanting to suffer. For this reason we must vigorously train in ways to develop the intention to protect others as much as ourselves, creating happiness and dispelling suffering. We may think that this is impossible, but it isn’t.”
― Śāntideva, The Way of the Bodhisattva 

Brian Dettmer

Brian Dettmer: Book Sculpture

For years, Atlanta-based Brian Dettmer has made fascinatingly original sculptures in which he contorts, bends, glues and manipulates old books, creating strange new forms from these familiar objects. Using the sharp cutting implements of a surgeon — Dettmer cuts into the depths of these vintage tomes, revealing themes and variations like some graduate student teasing a dissertation out of English literature. In doing so, the artist chooses to isolate key images and words amidst a fracas of information.

Tlingit Eagle Mask

Tlingit Eagle Mask, Rietberg Museum, Zurich, Switzerland

The Tlingit kinship system, like most Northwest Coast societies, is based on a matrilineal structure, and describes a family roughly according to Morgan’s Crow system of kinship. The society is wholly divided into two distinct functional kinship groups, termed Raven (Yéil) and Eagle/Wolf (Ch’aak’/Ghooch). The former identifies with the raven as its primary crest, but the latter is variously identified with the wolf, the eagle, or some other dominant animal crest depending on location of the families.

Woody Blackwell

Woody Blackwell, Fish Sculptures and the Art of Flint Knapping

Woody Blackwell is an artist with degrees in Art and Biology.

“My sculptures are made from recycled and reclaimed materials as much as possible.  Materials include galvanized sheet steel, antique advertising tins, bottle caps, paint, and wood.  And nails — lots of nails.  Each piece balances anatomical accuracy against stylized interpretation.  Many pieces are meant to look aged, as though they were made 100 years ago by an observant fisherman with an artistic eye who worked with whatever items he had at hand.

My goal is to use non-traditional materials to replicate the beauty of fish and whales (and occasionally birds and animals).  The use of a wide range of mixed media frees me to explore materials, textures, patterns, color, and juxtapositions, as well as the aesthetic of wabi sabi and the process of entropy.”- Woody Blackwell

Sonam Gyaitsen

Sonam Gyaitsen, “Thousand-Armed Avalokiteshvara”, Gilt Bronze, ca 1430, Jamchen Monastery, Tibet

The Lotus Sutra is generally accepted to be the earliest literature teaching about the doctrines of Avalokiteśvara. These are found in chapter 25. This chapter is devoted to Avalokiteśvara, describing him as a compassionate bodhisattva who hears the cries of sentient beings, and who works tirelessly to help those who call upon his name. A total of 33 different manifestations of Avalokiteśvara are described, including female manifestations, all to suit the minds of various beings.

One prominent Buddhist story tells of Avalokiteśvara vowing never to rest until he had freed all sentient beings from samsara, the wheel of birth and death. Despite strenuous effort, he realizes that still many unhappy beings were yet to be saved. After struggling to comprehend the needs of so many, his head splits into eleven pieces. Amitābha, the Celestial Buddha, seeing his plight, gives him eleven heads with which to hear the cries of the suffering. Upon hearing these cries and comprehending them, Avalokiteśvara attempts to reach out to all those who needed aid, but found that his two arms shattered into pieces. Once more, Amitābha comes to his aid and invests him with a thousand arms with which to aid the suffering multitudes.

Robert Glen

Robert Glen, “Mustangs”, Williams Square, Las Colinas, Irving, Texas

The sculpture  commemorates the wild mustangs that were historically important inhabitants of much of Texas. It portrays a group at 1.5 times life size, running through a watercourse, with fountains giving the effect of water splashed by the animals’ hooves. The horses are intended to represent the drive, initiative and unfettered lifestyle that were fundamental to the state in its pioneer days.

The work was commissioned in 1976 and installed in 1984. SWA Group’s design created a shallow watercourse extending 400 feet (130 m) from northeast to southwest across Williams Square, a gently sloping granite-paved open space about 300 feet (110 m) square. The plaza setting for the sculpture won a National Honor Award from the American Society of Landscape Architects.

Hiroshi Fuji

 

Hiroshi Fuji’s, “Toysaurus”

Japanese artist Jiroshi Fuji’s art revolves around “ways of transforming existences that are not valued by society into special existences.” One of the ways he does this is by using recycled materials in his art and inviting others—kids, artists, the public in general—to participate in its creation. He started a toy exchange system called “Kaekko” 13 years ago with over 5000 events having taken place in over 1000 locations across Japan and other countries as well.

Fuji brought together over 50,000 toys collected over the years in the “Kaekko” project and created an installation that included works such as this “Toysaurus” made from the recycled toys.

Thomas Spake

Glasswork by Thomas Spake

Thomas Spake strives to create hand blown glass that is unique and contemporary. Texture, color, pattern, light, and motion are all key design elements that run freely through all of the artwork produced. These ideas are at the core of creative process. The earth, air, and sea are the inspiration behind the artwork, from the sandy ocean floor, to the arid deserts of the American southwest, from the peaks of the Rockies to the distant horizon.

Thomas Spake is an artist currently living and working in Jaspar, Tennessee.

Images reblogged with thanks to the artist’s site: https://thomasspakestudios.com