Learning to Look at Sculpture

Learning to Look at Sculpture introduces students to different types of sculpture from all periods of Western art, from Classical times to the present day. It considers the relationship between painting and sculpture, but also the interesting relationships between sculpture, other arts and its surrounding context, including architecture, design, and issues around commemoration and public space.

In her highly accessible style, Acton demonstrates to those new to the field that learning to look at sculpture in a more focussed and analytical way can lead to greater understanding of sculpture of the past and the present, and of the cultures from which it comes.

This book is intended as a companion volume to Learning to look at Paintings and Learning to look at Modern Art by the same author.

Learning to Look at Sculpture is an accessible guide to the study and understanding of three dimensional art. Sculpture is all around us: in public parks, squares, gardens and railway stations, as part of the architecture of buildings, or when used in commemoration and memorials and can even be considered in relation to furniture and industrial design. This book encourages you to consider the multiple forms and everyday guises sculpture can take.

Exploring Western sculpture with examples from antiquity through to the present day, Mary Acton shows you how to analyse and fully experience sculpture, asking you to consider questions such as What do we mean by the sculptural vision? What qualities do we look for when viewing sculpture? How important is the influence of the Classical Tradition and what changed in the modern period? What difference does the scale and context make to our visual understanding?

With chapters on different types of sculpture, such as free-standing figures, group sculpture and reliefs, and addressing how the experience of sculpture is fundamentally different due to the nature of its relationship to the space of its setting, the book also explores related themes, such as sculpture’s connection with architecture, drawing and design, and what difference changing techniques can make to the tactile and physical experience of sculpture.

Richly illustrated with over 200 images, including multiple points of view of three dimensional works, examples include the Riace bronzes, Michelangelo’s David, Canova’s The Three Graces, medieval relief sculptures, war memorials and works from modern and contemporary artists, such as Henry Moore, Cornelia Parker and Richard Serra, and three-dimensional designers like Thomas Heatherwick.

A glossary of critical and technical terms, further reading and questions for students, make this the ideal companion for all those studying, or simply interested in, sculpture.