Metal plastic

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Metal sculptures are sculptures made of metals . They are made in metal sculpture , a division of sculpture . Metal design has a long tradition that extends from ancient Egypt through antiquity and the Middle Ages to contemporary art .

Metal sculptures have nothing to do with metal foundry , but are viewed as an independent artistic craft , as this is where deformation is mostly done . They differ from the subtractive design of a sculpture , in which the material, e.g. B. sandstone, is removed - and largely also by object art, which mainly works with found objects . On the other hand, there are also mixed forms.

The work is carried out as a half or full sculpture , silhouette or relief by driving , welding or forging . Copper , silver , gold or bronze and brass are usually used as metal ; contemporary, especially with large metal sculptures, often steel (from history around  iron ) and stainless steel .

To practice metal sculpture, both metalworking skills and creativity are prerequisites, similar to art blacksmithing .

The beginnings and their technology

The beginnings of driving in metal, as a basic requirement for the creation of metal sculptures, were around 6000 years ago in Sumer , Central and South Babylonia - in today's Iraq. An impressive testimony to early figural driving art from around 2250 BC. BC is the life-size sculpture of the Egyptian Pharaoh Pepi I , assembled from riveted copper sheets.

When driving, sheet metal is stretched or compressed manually or, less often, industrially using machines. The artistic activity of sculptures, pictures or reliefs made of soft metal is essentially about “working out” exactly the indentations and the elevations resulting from the displacement of the material and bringing them into the desired shape .

Metal sculpture in modern art

In modern art , metal sculpture began to break away from exclusively figurative art and, in parallel, opened up to abstract art . A development process took place from the plastic volume to the constructed room design. It has only been established as a fully valid means of expression since the 1930s, where, among others, the Spanish blacksmith Julio González did pioneering work, who worked with Pablo Picasso from 1923 and also instructed him in metalworking techniques in 1928. The American David Smith was inspired by the work of González.

The Russian avant-garde also dealt with the possibilities of metal sculpture, such as Tatlin ( Tatlin Tower ) and above all Naum Gabo . Renowned representatives of Catalan modernism , such as Antoni Gaudí and his pupil and colleague Jujol (e.g. with the extraordinary balcony grilles of Casa Milà 1908) are also pioneers of contemporary metal sculpture .

In the 1940s and 1950s, sculptors such as Hans Uhlmann , Fritz Kühn and Otto Sticht, the founding rector of the Berlin School of Art, set standards. Eduardo Chillida was his originally in forging technology resulting iron sculptures world famous.

Since then, a large number of sculptors around the world have dealt with this form of artistic expression, the great works of which can often be seen as art in public spaces .

Metal sculptors of the 20th and 21st centuries

Horseshoe horse (Gerald Schwörk)

In addition to the above, other examples of well-known personalities, alphabetically:

Tools of a metal sculptor

Metal sculptor's workshop

literature

  • Dietrich Mahlow: 100 years of metal sculpture , 2 volumes, Metallgesellschaft AG , Frankfurt 1981, ISSN  0369-2345 .
  • Irmtraud Ohme and Schüler: Metallgestaltung , exhibition catalog with an introduction to the topic of metal sculpture. Galerie Unter den Linden, Berlin 1987 (70 pages).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Harald Hauptmann , Ernst Pernicka (ed.): The metal industry in Mesopotamia from the beginnings to the 2nd millennium BC. Chr. With contributions by Barbara Helwing , Joachim Lutz, Uwe Müller and Michael Müller-Karpe . German Archaeological Institute, 2004, ISBN 3-89646-633-X