Memory contemporary international sculpture

2011

Two of the most marked differences between contemporary sculpture and the classical tradition are the wealth of materials used by artists today and the enormous range of interpretation and subject. The old parameters have gone leaving virtually no boundaries as to what constitutes sculpture. Malevitch’s Black Square and Duchamp’s Urinal appeared to be iconoclastic endings to painting and sculpture respectively, but in retrospect they were mere beginnings. Damien Hirst’s Shark or Christo’s wrapping of the Reichstag are modern ideas of what can constitute sculpture. The barriers between the various arts have all but dissolved, so that an artist who works with sound can be considered a sculptor in today’s terms. Is Peter Eisenman’s ‘Holocaust’ memorial in Berlin architecture or sculpture? Does it actually matter?