SCULPTURE COMES TO LIFE

Sculpture is at the heart of the contemporary art boom, says our columnist, and the kinds of materials used - and things that sculptures can do - appear boundless. JEAN-DAVID MALAT

The Surrealist master Salvador Dali once said, “The least that you can ask of a sculpture is that it does not move.” He was an art revolutionary at the time but his static and motionless view of what a sculpture can be is being proved wrong by contemporary sculptures and installations. As ever, sculpture is evolving with its time.

One thing that never changes about sculpture is how central it has always been in art history, and its defining role on the art market. The most expensive sculpture artwork ever auctioned - Alberto Giacometti’s L’Homme qui Marche 1 (Walking Man 1) - sold to an anonymous buyer for no less than US$104.3 million at Sotheby’s in London in February 2010.

The etymology of the word “sculpture” finds its origins in the Latin ‘sculpere’, which means ‘to cut into.’ Although we now know that sculpture has existed since the pre-historic period (the most ancient sculptures that have been found date back to between 30,000 and 10,000 BC), perfection in this artistic method is indeed believed to have been reached during the short 300 year Greco-Roman period - during which the Greek sculptors mastered the expression of ideal beauty and plastic perfection on materials such as white marble and stone. If traditional sculpture materials were mainly from mineral origins, modern and contemporary sculpture uses an infinity of other materials. Nowadays, there are fewer and fewer limits to which materials can be used to create sculpted artworks, and Spanish master painter and sculptor Joan Miro even stated in his last writings that in the future one should consider using gas as a sculpture material.

A very interesting contemporary artist who pushes boundaries of sculpture components is Royal Academician David Mach, who takes on the challenge of creating extraordinary sculptures out of extraordinary materials. In 2010, for example, he created Silver Streak - a three-metre-tall gorilla entirely composed of iron coat-hangers. Other materials he uses include red bricks, tyres, and match-heads. This piece can currently be seen at the Victoria & Albert Museum in an exhibition appropriately titled ‘The Power of Making.’ In a different style, French-American artist Arman, who died in 2005, remains well-known for his ‘accumulations’ and ‘poubelles’ (French for dustbins) sculptures. The ‘accumulations’ were collections of common and identical objects arranged in polyester or plexiglas cases and the ‘poubelles’ were collections of strewn refuse that earned him worldwide fame. Arman also created chairs, walls and pieces of furniture inspired by violins and other musical instruments, thus showing viewers that no rule applies when it comes to contemporary sculpture.

Nowadays, wonderful sculptures can be seen in museums, foundations or exhibition galleries. One can only think of Damien Hirst’s iconic shark piece titled The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living that was commissioned by Charles Saatchi in 1991. After being shown at the Saatchi Gallery and around the world, it will be part of a retrospective of Hirst’s work presented at the Tate Modern next year.

Another very current British sculptor is Marc Quinn, well-known for his sculpture of a pregnant Alison Lapper that has been installed at Trafalgar Square, and who unveiled a sculpture of Kate Moss in 2008 that was entirely made of 18 carat gold. The life size piece, called ‘Siren’, was promoted as the largest gold statue since ancient Egypt. Nowadays, a series of smaller editions of his ‘Siren’ is also available on the market and they make beautiful small display items.

Mauro Corda is a very hot sculptor among private collectors at the moment. A very traditional artist in the mediums he uses (aluminium, stainless steel and bronze), Corda’s style lies in the representation of the human body in the most amazing positions. He will be shown in his first solo exhibition in London starting from the 24th of November and he is a brilliant and deserving contemporary artist - quite affordable given the precision he puts in every piece. Although young, he is very established already: several of his ‘Contortionists’ sculptures are part of the art collection presented in the One Hyde Park apartments in Knightsbridge.

The classicism of the material, the purity of the body shapes, allied with the modernity of the positions in which he depicts his subjects make every single one of his artworks an exciting experience that leaves the viewer in awe of the artist’s technique.

Beside the museums and private houses, sculpture has always been the artwork of public space. Henry Moore might be the best example of it: he was best known for his abstract monumental sculptures located in tens of cities around the world as public works of art. And it is no surprise that it was a sculptor, Anish Kapoor, who was commissioned to deliver a special order for the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Outside of England, which has established itself as the world hub of modern and contemporary sculpture, it’s worth checking out Columbian artist Fernando Botero, who re-invents beauty criteria by depicting all characters as voluptuous, who has gained world recognition - you can find several of his sculptures in public spaces in Singapore.

The reasons why sculpture is the best art form for public spaces are various, stemming from the universality of its language (sculpture does not say, it shows), the relative durability of its components, the feasibility of doing large-scale works and others - although high-profile thefts from London's Hyde Park and other places demonstrate that even large, heavy works are not immune to criminal intentions.

Ultimately, today's sculpture is the perfect meeting of classicism and modernity, as the monumental exhibition of Jeff Koons’ ‘Dogs’ in the Palace of Versailles last year amply demonstrated.

Jean-David Malat is a director of the international Opera Gallery group; operagallery.com

Opera Gallery London's show of Mauro Corda starts on November 24