The debate about the difference between art and craft — in this case sculpture and decoration — has raged for millennia. It’s worth revisiting if you’re hovering on the verge of a sculpture acquisition.
At it’s rawest, the comparison is this: craft is functional, repeatable, and often cheap, where fine art is usually rare or comes in limited editions, and costs more or is even priceless.
With sculpture as a central pillar of art, let’s go a little deeper, remembering that time, history, and technology each has a part to play in narrowing or widening the definition.
What we now call fine art once served a practical and irreplaceable function in social, economic, and political life.
Sculpture as broadcaster
When you next visit a museum or art gallery, or spy a statue in a public square, consider this. Many of the works pre-dating the early 20th century and the advent of accessible photography were the only means of capturing and broadcasting likenesses of leaders, dignitaries, and newsmakers.
Sculpture was particularly important. It could be used as a form of early, multi-dimensional propaganda to enhance the presence and exploits of those it chose to honour with such massive public exposure. No other art form could achieve what we would today call a comparable reach, frequency, and permanence.
Sculpture as an aid to memory and imagination
Even today, almost every city or town across the globe boasts some form of commemorative or memorial sculpture. These monuments continue to inform and connect us to a long-dead but significantly influential ancestry. As we experience the emotions these sculptures evoke, we begin to understand how physical art can animate both memory and imagination.
How does this connect to the sculpture-versus-decoration debate?
Few of us fail to connect to art in some form. If you yearn to have the substance, presence, and values-defining strength of sculpture in your life, you’ll probably know that it can’t be bought off the shelf.
Sculpture is not for everyone. It’s also true that much decorative craftwork fulfils a legitimate and satisfying desire for an aesthetically pleasing enhancement of our personal space.
Sculpture, as opposed to decorative art, generally:
• Is exclusive or in limited editions, meaning it can’t be reproduced, sold, and displayed everywhere
• Expresses or connects to the owner’s personality or story
• Is associated or identified with an individual sculptor, and so carries a personal and emotional connection
• Uses better grade materials with a prolonged life
• Is hand-made, or hand-finished, giving the warmth, detail, and polish only a human hand can impart
• Costs significantly more than mass-produced works but appreciates in value over time.
If you think your needs in three-dimensional art have gone beyond the decorative, call Todd Stuart on +61 4 5151 8865, or visit mainartery.art.
