Reading II - 5 Artists - Minimalism

Tony Smith Die 1962

Robert Morris Untitled 1965-1966

Auguste Rodin Burghers of Calais 1884-1889

Candida Hofer Douze-Twelve 2001

Vladimir Tatlin Tatlin's Tower 1919

Reading I - 5 Artists

Bronze Gate, 2005, Robert Morris

Still Life with Guitar, 1913, Pablo Picasso

Fountain, 1917, Duchamp

Perimeters, Mary Miss

Expanded Expansion, 1969, Eva Hesse

Definition of Sculpture (list) - "Indefinitely Malleable"

- anything and everything
- new, used and old
- free standing or a base
- lighting
- installation
- performance
- video
- audio
- photography
- multi-combination of media
- nature
- drawing
- painting
- collage
- clothing
- props
- dramatic
- fun and frisky
- dark and serious
- uncanny
- bewildering
- real
- sculpture
- metal, wood, paper, glue, screws
- unlimited types of media
- diverse
- array of techniques, forms and concepts
- became popular post modernism
- earthwork
- situational
- site orientated or not
- mirrors
- documentaries
- music
- ground, ceiling, floor
- empty space or empty gallery
- architecture
- underground
- excavated earth
- logs
- fire pits
- stone henge
- Indian burial mounds
- statues
- monuments
- doors
- steel
- casting
- function
- purpose
- aesthetic
- abjection
- base
- unfinished
- sloppy
- craft
- skilled
- technical
- marble
- bronze
- aluminum
- iron
- "what is it not?"
- new alter installation
- effects
- dry ice
- a mindset
- negotiator
- cars
- demonstrations
- adornments
- mobile architecture
- choreography
- costumery
- reflection and or refraction
- semi-permeable membranes
- elevators
- designs
- a fun ride
- "duck"
- "decorated shed"
- kinetics
- kinetic sculptural dance
- stacking
- movement
- relics
- collections
- shaped paintings
- musical instruments
- misuse
- re-purposing
- distribution
- set of systems
- original
- copy
- referentialism
- etching
- ceramics
- porcelain
- clay
- slide shows
- film
- text
- essays
- object
- new material
- inventions
- formica
- Plexiglas
- brass
- shape
- size
- interior
- machinery
- spatiality
- experience
- time
- duration of experience
- poetry
- singing
- living sculptures
- taxidermy
- arbitrary
- public art
- tower
- chip board
- heavy industry worker
- a role
- environment
- proletarian worker
- raw production in public realms
- artistic producer
- figure/ground configuration
- slashed canvases
- balloons

The word "sculpture" in our contemporary time is misused and misunderstood. Society believes that a person in sculpture creates an object from material. Unfortunately this is not true. Contemporary sculpture is any type of art that isn't painting and for this statement to be true a person would have to define what painting is. The matter becomes even more confusing when a painting is no longer a traditional rectangle canvas because then it becomes sculpture. The definition above is a list format of what sculpture may be or may include but is not limited to the words above. I believe it would take a lifetime to finish a definition of sculpture. Here is a link to the etymology of the word sculpture. Instead of updating the definition to contemporary times, it may be more useful to appropriate a new word for sculpture to prevent any confusion.