Sculpture Forum 60 : Clay Figure Critique, Studio School of New York

 

Sculpture Forum 60 on Youtube 

Chicago’s  School of the Art Institute  has not had a live-model figure sculpture class 

for more than a decade. The Sculpture Department  now teaches “Ideas in space” that are “beyond objecthood”

So it was thrilling to find a program that offers tubs of clay, a life-size armature, and a live model for two full weeks of figure sculpting.  The instructor is Brandt Junceau (b.1959). He's not a formalist - a classicist - or a conceptualist. As he puts it - he's concerned with the character of the person being brought into existence by the hands of the sculptor. And he’s rather upbeat about the potential sculptor inside everyone - so beginners as well as skilled practitioners are welcome to participate.

Brandt Junceau

Here’s my favorite of his work among  what I found online.  Feels like a human figure - as well as a  deft, balanced  calligraphic brushstroke made through space. 

Anton Hanak (1875 -1934)

It reminds me of this Austrian sculptor: a kind of powerful, existential humanism - much less cheerful than profound.

This is a video record of the critique held at the end of the two week session in 2024. For me, it was too informal and lacked empathy for the classical naturalism that seemed to be emerging in the sculptures.

 

Regrettably, the pieces were not attributed.

Thai temple sculpture?

This participant was quite accomplished.

Here’s some beautiful views

(I’m not showing the other kind)

BTW - The piece in the background is by Louis CK, the famous comedian.

I would never have participated in such a project. It’s so exhausting to work life size - and the welded iron armature is too rigid.  However - there is something to be said for a simple, standing, straight ahead pose in that great tradition of the Ancient Greek Kore. The Classical European tradition started that way - why shouldn’t every sculptor in Western Civilization start that way as well?

Richard Miller

This is a student piece my father made when he was studying with Milton Horn. Not sure if he made it before or after he went into the army in the early forties. He liked it enough to keep it for forty years. When he finally threw it out, I rented a truck and hauled it to my studio where it stands today.

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It was by sheer accident that I stumbled upon the video of this workshop- but it does seem appropriate for my new blog about how to make great sculpture. Have students make simple standing figures from a live model under the guidance of an adept mentor. I would have thought that more immersion in good examples from the past would have been required. 

But as it turns out, when confronted with a healthy young model and sufficient tools 

,material, and encouragement , some people — perhaps many people - have it in them to make figure  sculpture that can compete with the ancients.

I’m guessing that all the pieces will be torn down.  They’re large, heavy, and don’t really work as either entertainment or contemporary art. And getting them from green clay to a fired,  reinforced ceramic is a technical challenge.

But hopefully there will be exceptions - and ever more as the project continues. A blossoming tradition of American devotional Kore?  Why not?