What Is Traditional Sculpture?

Video Transcript

"Sculpture, traditionally going back to the Greeks and then the Romans back through the middle ages to the renaissance, even in the neoclassical period it was often done for a social or political purpose. It was to represent an Emperor or to build an Arc de Triumph that represented the winning of a battle. It was in times in our history when most people were not literate, it was a way of explaining a story to them so it had a purpose to it beyond what it just looked like. It was often for revealing status. It was, at the other end it was for creating objects of art as decoration for homes. Traditional sculpture by that nature then was mostly figurative. The artists studied in school anatomy, sculpting clay, carving in stone and for the clay pieces having them casted at bronze foundries. Most of the work is representational meaning that when you look at it you know what it is. It represents a specific image and a lot of figurative traditional art in terms of the contemporary markets fell out of favor in the 60's with the advent of conceptual art and a lot of real innovative art forms. There are still a lot of schools that, or a few schools that teach the traditional art of sculpting. A lot of the work we do as commission sculptors, almost as commercial sculptors is more traditional. We get a lot of portrait work or work where we are asked to do something or to design a piece for a site and for most people who don't have a lot of art education or experience the traditional work is more accessible to them but it is representational work that they can identify with."