DOI article:
Rydiger, Monika: "Ludzkie architektury": ze studiów nad relacjami pomiędzy rzeźbą a architekturą w sztuce XX wieku
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19069#0117
be used as artistic media. Wire, T-bars, rods, Plexiglas, steel or wooden beams, boards and
the like appeared in sculptor's art, along with the technologies hitherto not utilized, such
as welding, screwing, or nailing together (e.g. ills. 6-10).
In some 20lh century sculptures whose subject is a human being, the materiał of the
body has been transformed into a specific "architectoidal corporality". By way of simpli-
fication, elimination of superfluous detail, reduction of a figurę to a number of selected
essential features, and emphasis on the salient characteristics of the body sculpture has
become a sign, the essence of a figurę. Thus transformed, it freąuently resembles an ar-
chitectural motif, for instance, a pillar or a column (ills. 11-14). Sculptures by Eduardo
Paolozzi, his "tower-figures" with column-like legs are already an example of "machine-
like corporality" (iłl. 15).
Following the intensity of the process of architecturalization of a human likeness
against a background of changing modes of representing a human figurę in 20lh century
sculpture, it seems that a tendency to render a human being in transformations and archi-
tecture-inspired forms was most conspicuous until the end of the 1950s. Bearing m mind
what Erie Gibson has established (he has distinguished two trends in 20th century figura-
tive art - "figurę" and "body"), it may be assumed that an interest in a human figurę in the
first half of the century was more conducive to bringing out and emphasizing the "archi-
tectonic ąuality" of the human body (and it expressed fascination with mechanized forms
of the rapidly developing technology), whereas the second half of the century witnessed
the treatment of the body as a source of inspiration, more veristic modes of representing it,
its literał use as an artistic medium, fascination with the body as materiał, or highlightmg
of its organicalness and naturę, which seem to have been a reaction to the earlier extremi-
ties described here.
114
the like appeared in sculptor's art, along with the technologies hitherto not utilized, such
as welding, screwing, or nailing together (e.g. ills. 6-10).
In some 20lh century sculptures whose subject is a human being, the materiał of the
body has been transformed into a specific "architectoidal corporality". By way of simpli-
fication, elimination of superfluous detail, reduction of a figurę to a number of selected
essential features, and emphasis on the salient characteristics of the body sculpture has
become a sign, the essence of a figurę. Thus transformed, it freąuently resembles an ar-
chitectural motif, for instance, a pillar or a column (ills. 11-14). Sculptures by Eduardo
Paolozzi, his "tower-figures" with column-like legs are already an example of "machine-
like corporality" (iłl. 15).
Following the intensity of the process of architecturalization of a human likeness
against a background of changing modes of representing a human figurę in 20lh century
sculpture, it seems that a tendency to render a human being in transformations and archi-
tecture-inspired forms was most conspicuous until the end of the 1950s. Bearing m mind
what Erie Gibson has established (he has distinguished two trends in 20th century figura-
tive art - "figurę" and "body"), it may be assumed that an interest in a human figurę in the
first half of the century was more conducive to bringing out and emphasizing the "archi-
tectonic ąuality" of the human body (and it expressed fascination with mechanized forms
of the rapidly developing technology), whereas the second half of the century witnessed
the treatment of the body as a source of inspiration, more veristic modes of representing it,
its literał use as an artistic medium, fascination with the body as materiał, or highlightmg
of its organicalness and naturę, which seem to have been a reaction to the earlier extremi-
ties described here.
114