Adriaen de Vries, a 17th century Dutch sculptor, often used "direct lost-wax casting." Because the wax is "lost," each bronze cast is unique. If the casting fails, the sculptor begins again. Created by Getty Museum.
Bronze, a combination of copper, tin, and other metals, has long been prized for its ability to register fine details. Watch indirect lost-wax casting, a technique developed by artists in the 1500s. Created by Getty Museum.
Chompers is a trio of abstract coyotes with levers to lift and lower their heads and open their mouths so that they can appear to be howling at the moon. They were built by the artists at Opera-Matic, a neighborhood art group from Chicago that specializes in community engagement. Opera-Matic was invited to bring Chompers to the BLINK festival in Cincinnati. The BLINK festival was a celebration of light and art with a focus on interactivity. The “coyotes” were a big hit with festival-goers, especially children. They are mounted on recycled ice cream bikes for easy mobility in parades.
In this art history video Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker discuss Claus Sluter and Claus de Werve's, "Mourners", Tomb of Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, installed 1410. In the Museum of Fine Arts, Dijon.
Hit the streets as your own, custom-made Superhero and work for the common good of your city! Artist Amy Franceschini has fashioned an inspiring lesson that will help guide you through the entire process from brainstorming logos, mottos and costumes to ensuring that your Superhero works to help solve a community's needs. This lesson is part of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art's Open Studio.
Check out the entire Open Studio collection for more activities centered around contemporary art: https://www.sfmoma.org/educators/
By the Victoria & Albert Museum. The Portico de la Gloria is one of the most remarkable monuments of Romanesque art. It is intricately carved with biblical scenes, interspersed with prophets, saints and angles. In 1866, the Museum commissioned the Italian plaster maker, Domenico Brucciani, to journey to Spain to produce a copy of it. This cast is over 17 metres wide. It determined the dimensions of the Cast Courts, which were built in 1873 to display this and other monumental copies of architecture and artworks from around the world. Find out more about our Cast Courts: https://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/cast-collection. Created by Smarthistory.
From the Victoria & Albert Museum. Nigel Bamforth, Senior Conservator, Furniture and Wood Conservation at the Victoria and Albert Museum, describes the condition of Tipu's Tiger and analysis of this unique object. Discover more: https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/tipus-tiger. Created by Smarthistory.
By the Victoria & Albert Museum. Victor Borges, Senior Sculpture Conservator at the V&A, discusses the V&A collection and the new discoveries which have uncover new information on their materials, techniques, history and provenance. Find out more: https://www.vam.ac.uk/info/conservation. Created by Smarthistory.
Diana Heath, Senior Metals Conservator at the V&A, describes the challenges of treating the Wolsey Angels – rare examples of copper figures created for the English Tudor court at the height of the Renaissance, between 1524 and 1529. The Angels were made by the Italian sculptor, Benedetto da Rovezzano (1474–1554), to adorn a magnificent tomb commissioned by Cardinal Thomas Wolsey. After the English Civil War, the Angels disappeared, and were only recently rediscovered, having stood unrecognised on the gateposts of a stately home in Northamptonshire, perhaps for centuries. Not originally intended for outdoor exposure, their surfaces altered radically over time. The separation of each pair of Angels accounts for their difference in appearance, together with the loss of their wings. Extensive conservation work at the V&A has now enlivened the appearance of the Angels and ensured their future preservation. The Wolsey Angels were purchased with the support of the National Heritage Memorial Fund, the Art Fund, a gift in memory of Melvin R. Seiden, the Friends of the V&A, the Ruddock Foundation for the Arts, the American Friends of the V&A, and many other generous donors thanks to a major public appeal in 2014. Find out more: https://www.vam.ac.uk/info/conservation. Created by Smarthistory.
Latex, chocolate, soap, and video game software are just a few of the non-traditional materials that have inspired contemporary artists. While they embrace the modern, synthetic and technologically advanced world in which we live, some of materials present significant conservation problems for museum conservators. Gwynne Ryan, a conservator at the Smithsonian's Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden discusses the challenges museums face with this issue: Should we keep art locked away to make it last? Or let it be experienced as it was intended while accelerating its natural degradation? For more information about the Hirshhorn's conservation program, visit: http://hirshhorn.si.edu/educate/page.asp?key=205&subkey=75.
Students use the robot paths they documented during the associated Robots on Ice Engineering Challenge activity to learn about and then make artwork. During the previous activity, students recorded the path of their robots through a maze in order to collect data during a remote research simulation. Now, they take a new look at the robot paths, seeing them from an art perspective as continuous line drawings. Students learn about Picasso’s famous works of art that used the same technique. Then they learn the artistic definition of a line and see examples of how it is used in different art pieces; they practice making continuous line drawings and then create sculptures of their drawings using colorful wire. A PowerPoint® presentation is provided to guide the activity.
Raymond Duchamp-Villon, Horse, 1914, bronze, 39-3/8 x 24 x 36 inches / 99 x 61 x 91.4 cm (Art Institute of Chicago). Created by Beth Harris and Steven Zucker.
This art history video discussion looks at Marcel Duchamp's "Fountain" (1917/1964). Porcelain urinal, paint (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art).
Form is one of the seven basic building blocks of art along with Line, Space, Shape, Value, Color, and Texture. Through the eye-fooling genre of Trompe L'oeil, we look at a variety of techniques artists use to transform shapes into forms and give their art depth and dimension.
Check out the entire collection of KQED Art School videos!
Space is one of the seven basic building blocks of art along with Line, Form, Shape, Value, Color, and Texture. Using site specific art as a starting point, we highlight the techniques that artists use to control and manipulate space in their work.
Texture is one of the seven basic building blocks of art along with Line, Form, Shape, Value, Space, and Color. Here we look at the how visual artists try to stimulate our sight and our other senses through different textures. They create something that we can see and feel or imagine the feeling of and try to engage us in that way as well. Learn how different textures (and implied textures) convey different feelings here.
Check out the entire collection of KQED Art School videos!
Elisabeth Higgins O'Connor creates poignant, larger-than-life figures that are seemingly cobbled together with reused scrap materials including wood, textiles and newspaper.
How do you make artwork that is conceptual? Artist Robb Godshaw uses technical means to move things that can’t be moved, or make visible things that aren’t normally visible. Watch as Godshaw scavenges electronic waste during an artist residency at SF Recology.
Students will analyze the 20th-century sculpture "Gandydancer's Dream" by Mark di Suvero. They will then use flat shapes and wire to create their own sculpture, which incorporates balance, rhythm, and movement.
Students will examine the bust, "Portrait of Nadine Dumas", and create a portrait bust of a friend to give to the friend as a gift. Students will then discuss the modeling techniques used to communicate likeness and expression in a three-dimensional bust portrait.