Maria Bartuszova - Transitional Forms

 

Maria Bartuszova (1936–1996) was a Slovakian sculptor known for her abstract white plaster sculptures.Her work is included in the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Slovak National Gallery in Bratislava and the Tate in London.
A majority of her sculptures are made of plaster, a material that is preparatory and impermanent by nature. For this reason her sculptures are, by design, tentative, unfinished and transitory. On occasion, when "Bartuszová succumbed to the temptations of using aluminium or bronze, she would immediately undermine their material weight, through either form or subject matter: softening the material, putting it in motion, altering its proportions, and mocking gravity."
Her artworks in the second half of the 1960s were influenced by her individual vision of constructive geometric tendencies connected with new materials such as cut aluminium. In 1976 and 1983, together with art historian G. Kladek, she ran workshops for disabled and visually impaired children. She created sculptures that enabled those unable to see to get to know various forms and textures, to differentiate between geometric and organic forms, to recognise their emotional significance, and to develop an alternative usage of art, with an emphasis on the haptic characteristics of sculpture. Wikipedia 

 

 

Jene Highstein - Minimalism

 

 Jene Highstein ( 1942 -2013 )
"Jene Highstein is a sculptor who, like his peers and friends Richard Nonas, Bob Grosvenor, and Gordon Matta-Clark, among others, emerged in the early 1970’s on a landscape in New York populated by powerful sculptors a few years older – Richard Serra, Keith Sonnier, Donald Judd, and Dan Flavin. Sharing many of their minimalist concerns, the new sculptors were however free men and women who were not wearied by the intellectual demands of the fight with Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art, and were filled with a newer sense of adventure in materials, process, and occasionally romantic relationships with landscape and architecture.
Highstein’s early work in New York depended on large and brutal manipulations of common building materials such as giant pipes, concrete, and plywood. Brought to location in Soho and Tribeca in big pick up trucks and maneuvered into place with old fashioned rope rigging, the placements were daring: such shows depended on close circles of friends and trusted allies.
These early 1970’s works acted as a bridge between pure process pieces such as Richard Serra’s late 1960’s work, and later, more formal sculptural works by Highstein in the 1980’s. While Highstein’s 1980’s work moves towards more clearly defined forms using fabricated materials, his earlier body of work combines abstract shapes with raw, industrial materials and pure or geometrically rigorous measurements to create minimalist, transitional, carefully sited formations. "(hclocktower.org)

 

Amilcar Augusto de Castro - Brazilian Art

Amílcar Augusto Pereira de Castro (6 June 1920 – 21 November 2002) was a Brazilian artist, sculptor and graphic designer.
Starting his career as a graphic designer, de Castro revolutionized the design of Brazilian newspapers in the 1950s, notably Jornal do Brasil.
From the 1960s he focused on sculpture and – alongside Lygia Clark, Ligia Pape and Helio Oiticica – was one of the leading figures of the Brazilian neo-constructivist movement.De Castro is particularly famous for large, bold simple iron forms nearly always characterized by a design based on "one cut, one fold."His method can be linked both to his earlier work with graphic design and paper, and to the mining heritage of his home state of Minas Gerais.De Castro did not just produce steel sculptures, he also used wood, marble and glass. Reflecting his training under Alberto de Guignard and his work as a graphic designer, he also produced thousands of graphic works, drawings prints and large scale paintings, as well as objects and jewelry.Wikipedia

Lenton Parr - Abstract Sculpture

Lenton Parr (11 September 1924 – 8 August 2003) was an Australian sculptor and teacher.Born in East Coburg, Victoria Lenton Parr spent eight years in the Royal Australian Air Force before enrolling to study sculpture at the Royal Melbourne Technical College (now RMIT University), then worked in England 1955–57 as an assistant to Henry Moore. There he was influenced by Reg Butler and Eduardo Paolozzi to work with enamelled steel structures, which was to become his lifelong specialty. After his return to Melbourne he showed at Peter Bray Gallery in 1957, and embarked on a career in art education which culminated in his appointment as director (1974–84) of the Victorian College of the Arts.
"The 1960s and 1970s were significant decades in the development of Australian sculpture. Hard Edge: Abstract Sculpture 1960s–70s focuses on abstract forms produced during this period by local artists such as Tony Coleing, Inge King, Clement Meadmore, Lenton Parr and Ron Robertson-Swann drawn from the National Gallery of Victoria’s permanent collection. The works’ burnished, polished, often brightly painted and welded industrial forms marked a departure from preceding trends in sculpture, signalling a new period of experimentation.While practised consistently in Australia since the nineteenth century, until the postwar period sculpture was often eclipsed in this country by developments in painting. Artists had traditionally carved in stone or wood, and cast in bronze; however, the liberation felt after the Second World War and increased time spent by Australian artists in England and the United States were rejuvenating forces. Many sculptors began to employ constructive techniques mirroring advancements in technology and engineering to create works that incorporated regular geometric forms and smooth curves. When painted, their experimental formalist sculptures were in flat, even colours; when left unfinished, the forms were often industrial in appearance."(ngv.vic.gov.au)