This module is not currently running in 2024 to 2025.
This module will provide a critical survey of the problematic position of sculpture within the history of art: sculpture has often been seen as a lesser art form, subsidiary to architecture or inferior to painting, and lacking theoretical definition. Sculpture's monumental or cultic functions place it nearer to the idol or votive offering than to the 'work of art' conceived of by aesthetic theories. At the beginning of the modern era Baudelaire dismissed sculpture as 'boring’, and yet since the Second World War various developments have led to a situation where sculpture, more broadly conceived (often in relation to performance), is leading artistic developments. The module will explore this dynamic while also touching on several of the themes which have characterised the study and appreciation of sculpture (such as the relation of sight to touch, the absence or presence of colour, the materials of sculpture etc.). The work of a number of key artists will be discussed as representative case studies from across the history of art.
Total Contact Hours: 50
Independent Study Hours: 250
Total Study Hours: 300
Main assessment methods
Critical analysis 2500 words: 40%
Essay 3000 Words: 60%.
Reassessment methods
Like-for-like
Indicative Reading List
Sarah Blake McHam (ed.)(1998) Looking at Italian Renaissance Sculpture, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Causey, A. (1998) Sculpture Since 1945, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Hall, J. (1999) The World as Sculpture: The Changing Status of Sculpture from the Renaissance to the Present Day, London: Chatto and Windus.
Lichtenstein, J. (2008) The Blind Spot: An Essay on the Relations between Painting and Sculpture in the Modern Age, trans. Chris Miller, Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute.
Penny, N (1993) The Materials of Sculpture, New Haven and London: Yale University Press.
Potts, A. (2000) The Sculptural Imagination: Figurative, Modernist, Minimalist, New Haven and London: Yale University Press.
Read, H. (2007) Modern Sculpture: A Concise History, London: Thames & Hudson.
Wittkower, R. (1977) Sculpture, Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Wood, J., Hulks, D. and Potts, A. (eds) (2012), Modern Sculpture Reader, Leeds and Los Angeles: The Henry Moore Foundation and Getty Publications, 2nd edition
The intended subject specific learning outcomes.
On successfully completing the module students will be able to:
On successfully completing the module, Level 5 students will be able to:
1 demonstrate knowledge and critical understanding of the lives and work of a number of key sculptors
2 demonstrate knowledge and critical understanding of the range of functions that sculpture has performed in human society including memorial, monumental and cultic
roles.
3 demonstrate knowledge and critical understanding of a range of theories and themes associated with the study of sculpture, such as its problematic status in relation to
definitions of art, the spatial and temporal qualities of sculpture, its tangibility, its relationship to colour, or to memory etc.
4 demonstrate knowledge and critical understanding of the developing position of sculpture within the history of art and its relation to other art forms – such as painting,
architecture and performance – in particular with regard to the place of sculpture within modernism and in contemporary art practice (e.g. taking into account such artistic
phenomena as the 'object trouvé', the readymade, the combine, installations and land art).
The intended generic learning outcomes.
On successfully completing the module students will be able to:
On successfully competing the module, Level 5 students will be able to:
1 demonstrate knowledge of the underlying concepts and principles associated with cultural and art history, evaluating and interpreting these in the context of the area of
study (Sculpture).
2 present, evaluate and interpret different forms of data, developing lines of argument to make connections between various phenomena, and making sound judgments and
critical evaluations in line with basic theories introduced in this module.
3 communicate the results of study accurately and reliably, with structured and coherent arguments.
4 demonstrate that they have developed study skills in order to research and present their work, including appropriate Information Technologies.
5 demonstrate that they have developed qualities of personal responsibility in completing assessment tasks to deadline, working in a self-motivated manner, thereby
enhancing transferable skills necessary for employment.
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