Scaling the Figure

Like Life: Sculpture, Color and the Body exhibition in the Met Breuer Museum was the type of exhibition that I would never have visited if it weren’t for the drawing class. The type of work exhibited was very eerie and uncomfortable to see, especially because they were sculptures of people and mannequins constructed in an obscure way. I personally do not like art that contains people, like portraits of sculptures of people. Some may disagree with my preferences, however, I only like the idea of capturing the “fleeting moment” when it comes to nature, or sceneries that contain people like backgrounds, not as the main subject.

The drawings I decided to draw for this assignment were those that were less eerie and made me feel more neutral rather than uncomfortable. These sculptures include Edgar Degas’ The Little 14 year old Dancer, Bharti Kher’s Mother Plaster & Wood, a roman sculpture of a nude female with drapery, and a Spanish or Mexican sculpture the Child Jesus Triumphant.

At first, I drew these sculptures from pictures I took, as I was not familiar with drawing from life, and felt it was easier to draw from a flat 2D image than a real 3D shape. However, after inspecting the drawings with the real sculpture, I realized that the drawings looked flat. Therefore, I drew them again with the actual sculpture in front of me. Although the drawings felt less proportionally accurate, it felt more voluminous and exciting.

The flower drawing was from the Whitney Museum of an oil painting by Grant Wood. I specifically liked this piece because of the color palette he used as well as the style of painting which was significantly different from his later works that are more popular.

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