History of the Sculpture in the U.S.
2008-07-31

History of the Sculpture in the U.S.

After the country's 18th-century foundation in Roman republican civic values and Protestant Christianity, the art of sculpture in the U.S. stepped into a new age. First came the Decorative art, reflected the spiritual values of the prosperous Puritan; and these simple but elegant objects took their place in fashionable homes. But the first American sculptor of significance was the Philadelphian William Rush (1756-1833), who worked in wood. The age Rush lived in was the golden time of Folk Art. All those specific applications in that time better reflected the character of a people than sculptures made in classical styles for social elites. 

Sauceboat (1740-1758), Boston, Jacob Hurd (1720-1758) [From Wikipedia]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sculpture_of_the_United_States

Then in the mid- to late-19th century, American sculpture was often classical, romantic, but showed a bent for a dramatic, narrative, almost journalistic realism. This first generation of notable American sculptors studied and lived in Italy, carving marble in the Italian Neo-Classicism style. They included Horatio Greenough (1805-1852); Hiram Powers 1805-1873, Thomas Crawford, and (somewhat later) William Henry Rinehart (1825 - 1874).Also there were some noteworthy American sculptors. During the Italian Period despite the sexism of the age, American women played an important role in the art of sculpture. The most famous one among them was Harriet Hosmer (1830-1908). Her works, Zenobia — Queen of Palmyra finished in 1857 is installed in Art Institute of Chicago now.

Harriet Hosmer (1830-1908), Zenobia — Queen of Palmyra, 1857, Art Institute of Chicago [From Wikipedia]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sculpture_of_the_United_States

In the following decades, American sculptors more often went to Paris to study, falling in with the more naturalistic and dramatic style exemplified by Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux (1827-1875) and Antoine-Louis Barye (1796-1875). And late the frontier life depicted by Frederick Remington witnessed the beginning of the style of "Western Art" that continued with Alexander Phimister Proctor and others through the 20th into the 21st century.

As the 20th century began, many young European sculptors migrated to the free, booming economy across the Atlantic. Several notable American sculptors joined in the revitalization of the classical tradition at this time, most notably Paul Manship, who discovered archaic Greek sculpture while studying on a scholarship in Rome. The ideologies that rent European politics were reflected in two distinct associations of American sculptors. One represented Modern Classicism and the other American Expressionism.

Paul Manship, one artist of Modern Classicism, Dancer with Gazelles, 1916 [From Wikipedia]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sculpture_of_the_United_States

And by the 1950s, traditional sculpture education would almost be completely replaced by a Bauhaus-influenced concern for abstract design. Minimalist sculpture often replaced the figure in public settings. Modern sculptors use both classical and abstract inspired designs and many new materials were explored for sculptural expression. So heroes of abstract sculpture such as David Smith emerged while another great sculptor Louise Nevelson pioneered the emerging genre of environmental sculpture.

Beginning in the 1980s, there was a swing back toward figurative public sculpture. A neo-Victorian style emerged, pioneered by the sculptor of the National Cathedral, Frederick Hart. And in 2000, many of the new public pieces in the United States were figurative in design. By then, the revival of figurative sculpture had accomplished.

And now we step into the 21st Century, a new element of much modern sculpture is movement. In kinetic works the sculptures are so balanced as to move when touched by the viewer; others are driven by machine. Large moving and stationary works in metal are frequently manufactured and assembled by machinists in factories according to the sculptor's design specifications. Also with the development of entertainment industry, Industrial product design for movie sets, theme parks, casinos, and athletic stadiums, especially automobiles, should not be ignored. 

Claes Oldenburg, Coosje van Bruggen, Spoonbridge and Cherry [From Wikipedia]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sculpture_of_the_United_States