Art Talk: Emotion In Bronze
Welcome to my new weekly series Art Talk. For a reference to the series see Art Talk: Intrduction.
Let's take a look at some of my favorite pieces in the Hirshhorn Sculpture garden in Washington, DC. I lived in DC for 6 years and go back every year. It is a city that has my heart and calls me to it. When I return, there are a few places I always visit and the Hirshhorn sculpture garden is one of these places.
Today we'll explore Emotion in Bronze by Auguste Rodin, Henry Moore and Francisco Zuniga.
Rodin, 1840-1877
Crouching Woman, 1882
This piece always draws me to it. Emotion emanates from her. And there are subtle changes depending on the direction you are looking at her and how close or far you are standing from her.
The primal way she is seated and her neck thrown back suggest to me despondency. I like to fill my life with beautiful things (why I am so drawn to nature and landscape photography). I like this sculpture because life is not always beautiful and light, sometimes it is very hard and it is hard to keep up our hope and courage. With this bronze Rodin shows us that we are not alone in this feeling...we are all connected.
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The Burghers of Calais, 1889
This is one of Rodin's most famous sculptures and it was commissioned in 1885 by the city of Calais. Under French law there can be no more than 12 original casts of works of Rodin. One of these is in the Hirshhorn sculpture garden. I have seen another original at the MET in New York City and a copy at Stanford University in California. Each time I see this work of art and hear the story I am moved by the sacrifice of these men.
The story happens in 1346, early in the Hundred Year's War, when King Edward of England laid siege on the city of Calais...for almost eleven months. Because of command from the King of France, Philip VI, to hold out the people began to starve. It is told that King Edward offered to spare the people of the city if six of its leaders would surrender the keys of the city and themselves.
In this iconic sculpture Rodin has captured the moment they are being led, wearing nooses, from their families and their beloved city, to their death. Each man has his own story, you can see it in his reaction to the event. In some we see bold expressions with hands and face, some subtle defiance. Each of these six men are unified in their heroic sacrifice.
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Henry Moore, 1898-1986
King and Queen, 1953
Henry Moore is one of my favorite artists.
What do you see when you look at this king and queen?
Would you even know that they are a king and queen if you hadn't read the plaque?
What are the emotions you experience when you look at it?
For me I feel calm. They are seated, with no shoes, in a very relaxed state. The queen is sitting upright with her hands in her lap. A great pose for meditation (which I have been practicing the past few years). They seemed to be waiting for someone to come to them. It looks like Henry Moore made benevolent sovereigns.
Interesting fact: In 1953, the year Henry Moore made this sculpture, was the same year of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth at the age of 25. Now, in 2018, Queen Elizabeth is 92 years old and is the longest-lived and longest-reigning British monarch.
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Draped Reclining Figure, 1953
Discovering the emotions with a Henry Moore piece is a bit more challenging.
They are more abstract and their faces are not expressing emotion like the Rodin we just saw. Take this women for instance. She looks a bit emotionless. Look closer. What emotions is she expressing through her body language?
Much like life, sometimes it is easy to see someone's emotions, sometimes we have to slow down and pay more attention to people and their body language understand them and how they might be feeling.
Three-Way Piece No. 3: Vertebrae, 1969
I couldn't resist putting in one of Moore's abstract bronzes. Maybe a future post can be more along this theme. Isn't it gorgeous?
Seated Yucatan Woman, Francisco Zuniga, 1973
Much of Zuniga's work, painting and sculpture, was of women. Here we see a women in repose. When I first saw this woman I thought she was sad. Upon closer look she may be asleep. Whichever the case she is definitely relaxed and her body is free from stress, tension or fear.
While there are many great sculptures in the Hirshhorn sculpture garden I focused on these three artists: Auguste Rodin (French), Henry Moore (English) and Francisco Zuniga (Costa Rican- born Mexican Artist), because they particularly talented in conveying emotion through the human body in bronze.
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Special Note: Sculpture has a special place in my life as I grew up with an artist father that made bronzes and owned his own foundry. Some days when I was out sandblasting the bronzes I wished I had a father that just went to an office. Now I appreciate the unique opportunity I had, growing up with beautiful bronzes all around me and seeing the process too.
For our next post we will take a closer look at Henry Moore in a special post called [Art Talk: Moore across America] which highlights some of the Henry Moore art I have seen in different cities across America.
Oh, you have no idea how much I admire Moore. The mere fact of seeing it in your post makes it my favorite post of the day. (No, I'm not exaggerating)
Moore, like Francisco Narvaez (Venezuelan sculptor), are my artistic references. They have helped me a lot in my work and I don't get tired of studying their forms.
Fun fact: my current sculpture professor, put together the exhibition of Henry Moore at the Museum of Contemporary Art in my country in 1983 and was in direct contact with hundreds of pieces from the Moore collection. <3 <3 <3
That is so great! Moore is one of my favorites too, so my next two Art Talk posts are all on Moore. I will have to look into Francisco Narvaez. The is so cool about your sculpture professor putting together a Henry Moore exhibit! From your comment I take it you are in college. Where do you live?
Great, I hope to see that publication very soon!
Oh yeah, I don'tt just recommend Narvaez for being the best exponent of the sculpture in my country Venezuela (which answers your question about me :) ), I also do it because he really deserves it. He was the pioneer of abstract sculpture here. It 's relatively well documented, so I recommend you take a look; you'll find elements that share Moore's aesthetic, like female figures.
@nelsinho Thank you so much for introducing me to Narvaez. So beautiful. Love the one with the child on the parents back. I will have to do some more studying on him and his art work! I had in mind that we could learn and share together. Thank you!
I'm really happy that you liked it :)
These sculptures sure do convey alot of emotions (some of them mixed) and stories behind them, these artistes are just incredible!!
We just have to pay more attention to details and take a second look at people, not all things are revealed at our first glance.
You know, most times, those moments we used to despise while growing up ends up being one of our most treasured memories
Hi @audreybits thanks for your insightful comment. I am glad that you enjoyed the post!
My pleasure!
Hi sjarvie5,
Visit curiesteem.com or join the Curie Discord community to learn more.
Thanks!
Hi Sara!
What's the difference between sculpture and statues?
I love statues especially the statues of the saints. I often times ask for there intercession. I read about their lives and try to imitate their heroic acts, their strength in character and their virtues.
Hi @ronel. Thanks for your question. The biggest difference between statues and sculpture are that statues are of living things such as people or animals or both and are made to be life like.
Sculptures can be of anything, people and animals and abstract and most certainly do not need to be made to be life like, as we see in Henry Moore's King and Queen.
Oh I see. Thanks for differentiating sculptures and statues.
I guess sculptures are much more expensive than statues?
There are also gold sculptures and gold statues.
very nice photography and very nice art
Thank you very much @momoriso
very beautiful photos and great art of those years I liked all but I liked more King and Queen, Henry Moore, 1953 are very beautiful images I congratulate you for sharing, I was unaware of the great art that I am from Venezuela and all the arts made here have been stolen by the situation of the country a greeting from here of Venezuela @sjarvie5
@neymarth10 thank you for your comment. I am so glad you shared that you liked the King and Queen sculpture.
I am friends with @gabyoraa and through her and her pictures have learned more about what is happening in and to your beautiful country. That is very sad about the art too because of the situation.
It gave me an idea. I am going to look and see if I can find some Venezuelan artist work here in the US and visit and do a post for you!
@sjarvie5 thank you very much sometimes I feel sad for what happens here, I really liked the work you did because I did not know that great art that is outside keep the stories very clean and beautiful what it causes is to go and get to know the art of bronze that you published to touch them and to know the history and to take a photo to me and to publish them and to say "here if the law is fulfilled" thanks for taking into account my comment is loved much @neymarth10 peace and love
Bronze sculpture are very glorious and express a great and really really sentimental emotions.
Thank you @galberto!
Hello very nice photo i like the little background story but what i like the most is your vision and feeling for each of this sculpture. I dont feel much by looking at them at first but after reading your words and paying more attention this sculptures looks more special.
@drawneaship that is so perceptive and true. I have had that happen to me so many times. The best part of museums for me are the highlight tours. It is so much easier to understand and then connect with a piece when you know something about it our the artist. I hope you will like the future posts too.
It always impressed me what in artist mind and how they think. How can they came out such an art with a story line. And we won't know what the sculpture going to tell us unless we read the plaque. I have a friend love art as well and she worked in art museum. She shared with me some of the incredible arts. Artiest was very creative, they can used all sort of objects to create their art. They used recycle papers and even dead bees. And their works were amazing.
Thank you for introduced me all these amazing art. We need to appreciate their creative worked and it valuable.
@oliviackl Thank you so much for your comment. I am glad I can introduce you to more art and artists like your friend did.
yes, this an eye opener to me as well. Normally art would present it in house. But these were out door. A lot of maintenance to take care of the master piece need to be done. Must thanks the caretaker on their dedication.
Thanks for sharing your sculpture review! It's amazing how formative these public sculpture gardens can be...
In the Lithuanian city where I grew up, Klaipėda, is this sculpture garden with tenths of sculptures from Klaipėda artists done in the Soviet era. I remember as a kid going there frequently with my parents and looking at the sculptures, sometimes even touching them. My parents were artists too so they could point me for interesting details to see...
@organduo thank you for your comment. What a great memory you have of the sculpture garden. What type of art did your parents do?
My mom and aunt used to do prints and my dad was a painter. My aunt recently started creating again with watercolor on scarfs.
That is great.