A
three-dimensional work of art. Many people think that only objects made of stone, wood, or bronze are sculptures, but the term applies to
any three-dimensional object that is an artwork.
Twentieth-century artists have shown us that any object and any type of material can become a scupture. So classifying sculptures by the material used has become an impossible task. Instead, sculptures are usually categorized by the process used to create them. The four categories are:
Carving – Cutting away material from an existing piece of material, such as
wood,
stone,
ivory, etc.
Modeling – Shaping of a pliable material, such as
clay,
plaster,
wax, etc.
Casting – Using a mold to shape a molten substance, such as
bronze,
plastic, etc.
Assembling – Creating a sculpture by connecting or unifying in some way objects of various materials. A sculpture created with
found objects is referred to with the
French term
assemblage.
Certain types of "sculpture" defy easy categorization, such as
earthworks,
kinetic sculpture, and
conceptual art.