Every art form conveys a specific sense of human nature, and there is a bond between sculpture and the surging sensation of monumentality, of our belief in our own grandeur. But the monumental does not merely, perhaps not even primarily, demarcate human pride, the feeling of our importance to a universe that needs to be reminded by our works that we are here. It also asserts our defiance of the passage of time, our rejection of a power that belittles us and our ambitions, that puts us in our place, that relegates us to a limited position on the calendar and the clock. The monumental is the mark of our desire to know that something of us is retained, something of us endures. And sculpture inherently obeys this desire. It is made to last, traditionally fashioned of stone or metal—materials that do not degrade. It is natural that we would sculpt to establish our monuments, for sculpture is the innate artistic expression of our urge for permanence…see the entire article in the print version of June’s Sculpture magazine.
