Brigitte Matschinsky-Denninghoff and Martin Matschinsky
Berlin
Steel reinforced with concrete
Berlin, Germany
Artist website: http://www.kettererkunst.com/bio/martin-und-brigitte-matschinsky-denninghoff-1921.php
Image Source: http://www.wikimedia.org/
When I saw the title of this news item: “Bringing Lost Art Back From the Grave via 3D Printing”, my assumption was that these would be projects that “filled” in the missing pieces of famous sculptures like the arms for the Venus de Milo. Instead this is a report on a project to recreate a Michelangelo painting that no longer exists; called the “Battle of Cascina”.
Turns out the original painting was never completely finished and then was destroyed by a jealous rival artist. As luck would have it, there are some of Michelangelo’s preparatory drawings still available. Also, some less notable artists made copies of the original composition; which can be used to recreate the painting.
An artist, named Mushogenshin, took on the project to recreate Michelangelo’s “Battle of Cascina” as individual 3D printed sculptures. Mushogenshin launched a kickstarter project that did not meet it’s funding goal. As a result he has been continuing the project on a part-time basis.
“I started preparing for the project, on and off, since May 2014 by shooting photo reference for anatomical details, employing a big turntable I built in April 2013. In mid-July 2014 I quit one of my day jobs so that I could dive into sculpting the figures.”
Source w/video: http://3dprint.com/28612/3d-printed-battle-of-cascina/
Kate Semple
Suspended Spheres (part of a larger commission)
Stone
Somerset
Artist website: http://www.katesemplesculpture.co.uk/index.htm
Image Source: http://www.katesemplesculpture.co.uk
A fun approach to commision work is to see it as a joint project. I especially like the idea of checking out the works the client already owns and letting that influence the project .
Sounds like a blast….
I do love it when someone enjoys my work enough to want to invest in it at a gallery or exhibition – it gives you a kind of affirmation I guess; but for me there is no greater joy than being commissioned to undertake a bespoke sculpture. The client will have seen my work and feel inspired enough to want to have one of my sculptures made specifically for them and usually situated in a particular place.
Commissioning leads to a special relationship which I not only enjoy but influences me and takes my work in unanticipated directions – after all no two briefs are ever the same and of course the locations differ enormously.
I always go into a new commission with an open mind and look to respond to the site specifically and also to draw upon the tastes and aspirations of my client – what style is their home, what artists do they admire and what do they have on their…
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Bill Barrett
Lexeme VIII with Oval Base
Carrara Marble
Sonoma, CA
Artist website: http://www.billbarrettsculpture.com/
Image Source: http://www.sculpturesite.com
I had just read a few news items about a couple of studies on how synchronization of body language improves creativity. I was hoping to turn those reports into a blog post but to me the study results boiled down to plain old confusion of causation and correlation; despite their claims to the contrary. Granted I didn’t read the actual studies, only the news reports.
Then I saw this news blog post reporting on a recently published evolutionary psychology book: ‘The Mating Mind: How Sexual Choice Shaped the Evolution of Human Nature’ by Geoffrey Miller. To me evolutionary psychology seems like an intriguing, complex subject. This news blog thought it would be most insightful to focus on listing which types of creative activities are most likely to get you laid.
To start with the author, Mr. Kaufman, agrees with the assertion that “ornamental/aesthetic displays of creativity” are sexier than “applied/technological displays of creativity”. He sums this up by quoting Daniel Nettle: “You remember Beethoven and Brahms, but can you name a single innovator in the field of sewer construction and sewage treatment?”
Maybe it’s just me but Thomas Crapper leaps to mind. It seems a bit ironic that a blogger for a scientific magazine would be tone-deaf to mass media’s traditionally poor quality reporting on science, and engineering activities; thus the public’s limited awareness of those subjects. Perhaps he believes that editorial and reporting choices aren’t a filter but a “pure reflection” of the general population.
You can click-through to the source item, to read the list of top ten hot and not creative activities. Who knew, that being in a band or taking “artistic” photographs was a turn on? If only I knew how to write psychology research grant requests that get funded, I’d be set.
Source: http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/beautiful-minds/2014/12/16/what-forms-of-creativity-turn-you-on/
This IS the 21st Century. I don’t recall ever reading a sci-fi story where a tool was emailed into space. This is an example of real life getting very close to matching the concept of a replicator from Star Trek.
Made In Space, the California company that designed the 3D printer aboard the ISS, overheard Wilmore mentioning the need for a ratcheting socket wrench and decided to create one. Previously, if an astronaut needed a specific tool it would have to be flown up on the next mission to the ISS, which could take months.
Source: http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-12/19/3d-printed-space-wrench
Anyone who has ever taken an art history class is likely to know that the ancient Greek sculptures originally had been painted. Our modern expectation is to appreciate the beauty of the stone “unadorned”.
Sculptor David Worthington’s current exhibition show cases a series of designs called ‘Experiments in Colour’. Mr. Worthington’s sculptures are of marble with color applied using paint that is more commonly used on custom cars.
“What I wanted to do with the colour was to de-stabilise the stone so that it is no longer purely a marble stone object – there is something else going on.”
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/bob-chaundy/david-worthington-experiments-in-colour_b_6211360.html
Unidentified Artist(s)
Mural Tallado en Piedra
Unidentified stone
Near Alcalá de Henares, Spain
[sorry about the watermark – still a pretty cool panel]
Image Source: http://www.tayasia.es/es/artesania-tallas_de_piedra
“Oops!”
Spend enough time visiting galleries and museums and you have to wonder if it will happen to you – making the news for accidently damaging an invaluable artwork.
I just read a long winded report on a woman’s experience after sitting on one of a pair of sculptures that were “suggestive of museum benches”. If you were to damage a work of art, I’m sure you would wonder if you had just become financially ruined. A lot of thoughts went through this woman’s mind. She even wondered the same thing I was thinking reading her piece – “Maybe it was a performance piece tracking everybody who sat on it and their responses?”
Above is Picasso’s painting ‘The Actor’ which was damaged when a woman accidentally stumbled into it. I really like the quote used to start the article with:
“Sculpture is something you bump into when you back up to look at a painting,” someone famously quipped once — maybe Ad Reinhardt or Barnett Newman.
Check the source for the full story – sort of. Don’t miss the comments, which manage to fill out the issue somewhat.
Source http://hyperallergic.com/146223/philistine-or-what-happens-when-you-break-a-sculpture-in-a-gallery/
I thought it would be fun to start a new posting category, I’m calling “Random Art”. The idea is, I will post images of sculptures that happen to catch my eye. Hopefully you will find some enjoyment and maybe some inspiration from these pictures. Enjoy….
Jeff Koons
Diamond (Blue)
High chromium stainless steel with transparent color coating
Private collection
Artist website: http://www.jeffkoons.com/artwork/celebration/diamond
Image Source: http://www.wikiart.org/
This is “shell art” collected by Dutch geologist Eugene Dubois in Trinil, Indonesia, back in the 1890s. Seven years ago, a PhD student and an archaeologist were re-exploring the Dubois collection and made this very cool “find”.
The simple zigzag pattern, found on a fossilised shell from the Indonesian island of Java, has been dated to at least 430,000 years.
The find, reported in the journal Nature on Thursday, predates by some 300,000 years other markings made by modern humans or Neanderthals, previously thought the oldest.
The age and location of the shell suggests the pattern was carved by an even earlier human ancestor known as Homo erectus.
“It rewrites human history,” said Dr Stephen Munro, the Australian National University paleoanthropologist who made the find.
It suggests Homo erectus had considerable manual dexterity and possibly greater cognitive abilities, and raises the prospect that they might have been more “human” than previously thought. “That’s something people will argue about,” Munro said.
Some sources believe the engraving is over 540,000 years old. If you click-through to the source you will find a very interesting timeline; that includes some related ancient art finds.
What caught my eye is that a fresh clam shell would have a dark brown coat, so the etching would have made a prominent white line. The scientists suggested that this engraving may have been a practice run for a decoration on another object.
Runes in the Sand 