Description

Book Synopsis
Explores how artists from the European Renaissance to the global present have used sculpture and color to evoke the presence of the living body

Since the earliest myths of the sculptor Pygmalion bringing a statue to life through desire, artists have explored the boundaries between sculpture and the physical materiality of the body. This groundbreaking volume examines key sculptural works from 13th-century Europe to the global present, revealing new insights into the strategies artists deploy to blur the distinction between art and life. Sculpture, which has historically taken the human figure as its subject, is presented here in myriad manifestations created by artists ranging from Donatello and Degas to Picasso, Kiki Smith, and Jeff Koons. Featuring works created in traditional media such as wood and marble as well as the unexpected such as wax, metal, and blood, Like Life presents sculpture both conventional and shocking, including effigies, dolls, mannequins, automata, waxworks, and anatomical models. Containing texts by art and cultural historians as well as interviews with contemporary artists, this is a provocative exploration of three-dimensional representations of the human body.

Published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Distributed by Yale University Press


Exhibition Schedule:

The Met Breuer
(03/21/18–07/22/18)

Like Life: Sculpture, Color, and the Body

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    A Hardback by Luke Syson, Sheena Wagstaff, Emerson Bowyer

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      View other formats and editions of Like Life: Sculpture, Color, and the Body by Luke Syson

      Publisher: Metropolitan Museum of Art
      Publication Date: Publication Date: 03/04/2018
      ISBN13: 9781588396440, 978-1588396440
      ISBN10: 1588396444

      Description

      Book Synopsis
      Explores how artists from the European Renaissance to the global present have used sculpture and color to evoke the presence of the living body

      Since the earliest myths of the sculptor Pygmalion bringing a statue to life through desire, artists have explored the boundaries between sculpture and the physical materiality of the body. This groundbreaking volume examines key sculptural works from 13th-century Europe to the global present, revealing new insights into the strategies artists deploy to blur the distinction between art and life. Sculpture, which has historically taken the human figure as its subject, is presented here in myriad manifestations created by artists ranging from Donatello and Degas to Picasso, Kiki Smith, and Jeff Koons. Featuring works created in traditional media such as wood and marble as well as the unexpected such as wax, metal, and blood, Like Life presents sculpture both conventional and shocking, including effigies, dolls, mannequins, automata, waxworks, and anatomical models. Containing texts by art and cultural historians as well as interviews with contemporary artists, this is a provocative exploration of three-dimensional representations of the human body.

      Published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Distributed by Yale University Press


      Exhibition Schedule:

      The Met Breuer
      (03/21/18–07/22/18)

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