Hey!
I am trying to fix up an independent study in sculpture since the sculpture dept. at my school is full of art snobs with superiority complexes. I need to teach myself techniques in assemblage, casting, modeling, etc. Does anyone have ideas or time to write out instructions for various techniques (plaster, wood, carving, whatever)? Also, what are some cool sculptors to check out? Thanks!

cool sculptors to check out:
henry moore, donald judd or any of the minimalist sculptors, claes oldenburg!, Liza Lou, Joseph Cornell, Martin Kippenburger, George Segal, KCHO, Felix Gonzales-Torres, Calder, Janine Antoni, Matthew Barney...

henry moore is probably the stereotypical sculptor in my suggestions, using plaster and bronze.

the minimalists used geometric shapes and bright colors, or no color at all. often was too 'intelligent' for people.

claes oldenburg did these wonderful vinyl sculptures about food and was lumped in with pop artists. he's also done several large-scale comissions for cities, like here in chicago he has this huge aluminum skeleton of a baseball bat.

Liza Lou is this woman in california (i think) who beads these life-size environments. read this article about her in the Village Voice- http://www.villagevoice.com/columns/9926/trebay.shtml - it's unbelievable to look at.

Joseph Cornell did these intricate boxes, filled with papers and objects.

Martin Kippenburger was a german artist associated with the punk scene overseas. he once owned a club, and had a lot to do with the gallery scene there as well. He had an installation at the University of Chicago here called "A Happy End to Kafka's Amerika" (or something similar to that). A lot of found furniture was used.

Segal does the negative plaster body casts.

KCHO is this cuban artist and he works a lot with wood and themes of the sea. it's huge. he's represented by Barbara Gladstone gallery in NYC, so i'm sure they'd have some images online.

Felix Gonzales-Torres works in themes dealing with AIDS, and uses candy and lights.

Alex Calder did mobiles. (i head he invented the term?).

Janine Antoni uses chocolate, i think she used lard as well once. she knaws away at it with her teeth to make a shape.

and Matthew Barney is a filmmaker, but i believe he makes a lot of his own sets & props. he did films called Cremaster, which are very difficult to view on your own. But there's lots of photos/stills out there. he works with plastic, specifically the stuff football protection is made of.

it's hard to take, but sometimes those art snobs with complexes can teach you a lot, if you can ignore their attitude and sift out the useful information. especially if the teachers are okay, and the students are the snobs. fuck'em, as i always say. you dont need to take the time to notice their bad attitudes.

stella

thanks for such a good list of sculptors!! Yeah I would like to try to ignore these guys (the teachers are both grad students) but since I am training to be an art teacher I try to avoid negatively charged art classes whenever possible. When I mean negative I don't mean *constructively* critical, I mean calling people's artwork shitty and personally attacking their style.