# data[].attributes.body
I love how it is made out of gold or at least appears to be. It makes it look very classy and stands out.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The history of the Hermitage's Peacock Clock begins in 1777, when the Duchess of Kingston visited St Petersburg. Balls were given in the Russian capital in honour of this wealthy and distinguished guest. Grigory Potiomkin, who met the Duchess in society, learned of James Cox's magnificent mechanisms. Pandering to Catherine II's passion for collecting, the Prince commissioned the celebrated craftsman to make a monumental automaton with a clock for the Empress's Hermitage. In order to meet this expensive order as quickly as possible, Cox, whose financial affairs were currently not in the best of health, decided to use an existing mechanical peacock that featured in the Dublin lottery. He expanded the composition with a cockerel, owl and a clock mechanism with a dial incorporated into the head of a mushroom, and removed the snakes. To create his new automaton, Cox recruited the assistance of Friedrich Jury, a German craftsman who had settled in London. The Peacock Clock arrived in St Petersburg in 1781. The records of the Winter Palace chancellery listing the valuables that Catherine II acquired in that year include mention of two payments - on 30 September and 14 December - to the clockmaker Jury for a clock delivered from England. The payments amounted to 11,000 roubles (around 1,800 pounds sterling) and were made from the Empress's personal funds on the basis of a letter from Prince Potiomkin. The clock was brought to Russia in pieces. At Potiomkin's request the Russian mechanic Ivan Kulibin set it in working order. From 1797 to the present day the Peacock Clock has been one of the Hermitage's most famous exhibits. It is, moreover, the only large 18th-century automaton in the world to have come down to us unaltered and in a functioning condition. The State Hermitage Museum, St.Petersburg. Photo by Evgeniy Sinyaver.

Recommended

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Peacock Clock - James Cox - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The history of the Hermitage's Peacock Clock begins in 1777, when the Duchess of Kingston visited St Petersburg. Balls were given in the Russian capital in honour of this wealthy and distinguished guest.

# data[].attributes.headline
Penitent Magdalene, Antonio Canova, 1794/1796

# data[].attributes.subject
Penitent Magdalene, Antonio Canova, 1794/1796

# data[].attributes.body
This piece of art gave me pirates of the Caribbean vibes. I thought the skull was cool as well.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Penitent Magdalene - Antonio Canova - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Google Arts & Culture features content from over 2000 leading museums and archives who have partnered with the Google Cultural Institute to bring the world's treasures online.

# data[].attributes.body
I like this sculpture a lot because it is a grouping of lights. I really don't like the dark so a group of lighting is a great sculpture to me.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
"Urban Light" is a 2008 public art assemblage sculpture by Chris Burden of 202 restored vintage lampposts from the 1920s and 1930s. The lampposts are cast iron and range from 20 to 30 feet in height; many were salvaged from Los Angeles neighborhoods. It is located in front of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art on Wilshire Boulevard, and it was Burden's express intention to locate the piece in the empty plaza next to the sidewalk to enhance the space with a highly engaging and visible public artwork.

Since its 2008 installation, Burden's "Urban Light" has become one of Los Angeles' most popular and iconic public artworks, with critics rating its popularity as unprecedented in the Los Angeles region. It attracts large numbers of daily visitors and tourists, has been featured as a locale in films and events, and has become a popular site for weddings. "Urban Light" is open to the public 24/7 and includes dusk-to-dawn solar-powered lighting.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Urban Light - Chris Burden - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
"Urban Light" is a 2008 public art assemblage sculpture by Chris Burden of 202 restored vintage lampposts from the 1920s and 1930s. The lampposts are cast iron and range from 20 to 30 feet in height; many were salvaged from Los Angeles neighborhoods.

# data[].attributes.body
Antonio Canova (1994-1996)

I believe this sculpture shows of a great loss. It with holds grief and portrays it in a physical form. Constantly capturing the face of it.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Penitent Magdalene - Antonio Canova - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Google Arts & Culture features content from over 2000 leading museums and archives who have partnered with the Google Cultural Institute to bring the world's treasures online.

# data[].attributes.body
Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1899)

This sculpture is mesmerizing. It's very elegant and delicate looking yet holds so much power into one.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Augustus Saint-Gaudens created his original Diana as an eighteen-foot-tall wind vane that was mounted atop the tower at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Installed in October 1891, Diana drew attention as the most conspicuous nude in late nineteenth-century American art. Given the figure's notoriety, Saint-Gaudens saw financial advantage in issuing statuettes of the work. He did not simply replicate the figure mechanically but modeled his reductions by hand and had them cast by the leading French and American foundries. Elegant statuettes such as this one were marketed through Tiffany and other fine shops.

Explore museums and play with Art Transfer, Pocket Galleries, Art Selfie, and more

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Diana of the Tower - Augustus Saint-Gaudens - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Augustus Saint-Gaudens created his original *Diana* as an eighteen-foot-tall wind vane that was mounted atop the tower at Madison Square Garden in New York...

# data[].attributes.body
Daniel Chester French (1922)

The sculpture itself has the opportunity to hold many meanings, values, and perceptions. It is vague yet also meaningful to the eyes it meets, most of the time.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Daniel Chester French modeled Benediction in 1922, the same year that his best-known sculpture, the seated Lincoln, was dedicated at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. Benediction, executed near the end of French's prolific career, represents the culmination of his long investigation into the motif of the winged female figure. He conceived this statuette as the central element of a proposed monument to honor Massachusetts soldiers who had died during World War I. However, the project was never executed, and in subsequent years, French engaged Roman Bronze Works to make four bronze casts.

Explore museums and play with Art Transfer, Pocket Galleries, Art Selfie, and more

Recommended

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Benediction - Daniel Chester French - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Daniel Chester French modeled Benediction in 1922, the same year that his best-known sculpture, the seated Lincoln, was dedicated at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. Benediction, executed near the end of French's prolific career, represents the culmination of his long investigation into the motif of the winged female figure.

# data[].attributes.headline
345 Modern House, Douglas Coupland, 2014

# data[].attributes.subject
345 Modern House, Douglas Coupland, 2014

# data[].attributes.body
I like the meaning and purpose of this installation. It speaks of the dystopian and fantastical perspectives of society.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The first and last Lego kit Coupland purchased as a child was No. 345, which forms a modern single-storey house complete with a fence, gate that opens and closes, carport and car. For his 345 Modern House installation, the artist has recreated 100 such kits using original Lego parts as well as hundreds of hand-cast resin pieces in the place of components that are now impossible to find. The row upon row of identical houses was once idealized as a suburban paradise, indicative of social betterment and progress. Today, however, such widespread repetition is viewed as an unsettling, even authoritative, view of advancement.

Growing up on the West Coast of North America in the latter half of the twentieth century, Douglas Coupland's childhood was imbued with a deep-rooted optimism, a sense that tomorrow would be an improvement on today. It wasn't until the 1990s that the artist realized his belief in the inevitability of progress was rooted in his post-war upbrining. Through his work, Coupland reflects on both the dystopic and fantastical possibilities that emerge from this perspective.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
345 Modern House - Douglas Coupland - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The first and last Lego kit Coupland purchased as a child was No. 345, which forms a modern single-storey house complete with a fence, gate that opens and closes, carport and car. For his 345 Modern House installation, the artist has recreated 100 such kits using original Lego parts as well as hundreds of hand-cast resin pieces in the place of components that are now impossible to find.

# data[].attributes.body
I like that the entire "dog" is made out of mirror-polished stainless steel and then coated with a transparent coating of color, in this case yellow.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Balloon Dog is an iconic work within the highly acclaimed Celebration series, which Jeff Koons began in the mid 1990s. The Celebration artworks reference certain times of year (holidays and birthdays) but also the celebration of the cycle of life. What else could suggest the cheer of children’s parties more eloquently than a colorful balloon, twisted into the instantly recognizable form of a dog. According to the artist, “It is about celebration and childhood and color and simplicity – but it’s also a Trojan horse. It’s a Trojan horse to the whole body of art work.” Balloon Dog has the profoundness of an archaic sculpture. The monumental Balloon Dog sculptures were made from precision engineered mirror polished stainless steel and finished with a transparent coating of either blue, magenta, orange, red, or yellow. Despite its ten-foot and one ton metal, no detail was spared in the rendering of the Balloon Dog’s form. The artist’s exacting standards are one of the most captivating aspects of Koons’s art as captured in the porcelain Balloon Dog (Yellow), which simulates the mirror-polished stainless steel of the monumental sculpture with its metallic yellow finish and then attached to a reflective porcelain plate.

Details

Get the app

Explore museums and play with Art Transfer, Pocket Galleries, Art Selfie, and more

Recommended

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Balloon Dog (yellow) - Jeff Koons - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Balloon Dog is an iconic work within the highly acclaimed Celebration series, which Jeff Koons began in the mid 1990s. The Celebration artworks reference c...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Tomb Guardian - Unknown Artist, State of Chu, Hubei province - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Google Arts & Culture features content from over 2000 leading museums and archives who have partnered with the Google Cultural Institute to bring the world's treasures online.

# data[].attributes.headline
Cupid and Psyche - Antonio Canova (1808)

# data[].attributes.subject
Cupid and Psyche - Antonio Canova (1808)

# data[].attributes.body
This sculpture reminded me of Rodin's "The Kiss." Two lovers sharing a moment of intimacy that makes you want to look away and give them some privacy.

# data[].attributes.headline
he Wounded Scout. A Friend In The Swamp 1829 - 1904 1864

# data[].attributes.subject
he Wounded Scout. A Friend In The Swamp 1829 - 1904 1864

# data[].attributes.body
I think this piece is kind of powerful. Depicting an escaped enslaved man helping a wounded Union solider. This sculpture portrays an important time in history and tells a story.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
A cast and painted plaster sculptural group depicting an escaped enslaved man helping a wounded Union soldier. This genre scene depicts an injured soldier leaning against the formerly enslaved man, his head resting on the other man's shoulder. The soldier's right arm is wrapped in a tourniquet and hangs limply at his side. The formerly enslaved man stands tall, looking off into the distance, while he holds the scout's left arm and guides him forward with his right arm supporting the soldier's waist. The scout has a mustache and is in uniform, wearing a jacket and boots with a bag, cartridge box and a canteen, while the formerly enslaved man is bearded and barefoot, and is wearing a shirt tucked into pants, both of which are torn and tattered. The men are walking through long grasses and swamp plants. Next to the formerly enslaved man's left foot is a copperhead snake coiled to strike. At the front of the sculpture base is etched: [JOHN ROGERS / NEW YORK / THE WOUNDED SCOUT. / A FRIEND IN THE SWAMP.]. Inscribed on the verso of the base is: [PATENTED JUNE 28 1864]. On the bottom of the base is an incomplete inscription [REK].

Explore museums and play with Art Transfer, Pocket Galleries, Art Selfie, and more

Recommended

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Wounded Scout. A Friend In The Swamp. - John Rogers, American, 1829 - 1904 - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A cast and painted plaster sculptural group depicting an escaped enslaved man helping a wounded Union soldier. This genre scene depicts an injured soldier leaning against the formerly enslaved man, his head resting on the other man's shoulder. The soldier's right arm is wrapped in a tourniquet and hangs limply at his side.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Thousands of years ago, the ancient Egyptians built magnificent temples for the deities they worshipped and monumental pyramids for the mummified remains of their rulers, who were believed to be both mortal and divine and endowed with great magical as well as spiritual powers.

The woven, striped headdress (royal nemes) and false beard, both divine attributes of the gods, indicate the sculpture is of a pharaoh. In fact, his identity-Seti I-is inscribed on the nemes and the elliptical cartouche at the rear of the bust. He appears to be youthful (although he was older at the time he was portrayed), handsome, and virile, and his facial expression is calm.(3) One of the greatest Egyptian pharaohs, Seti was a successful military leader and a great patron of the arts. He waged wars against the Hittites, Phoenicians, Syrians, and Libyans, which resulted in his extending the boundaries of Egypt into other parts of North Africa and the Near East. Seti I restored neglected temples and shrines, and among his buildings is a temple at Abydos to honor the deity Osiris and his own magnificent tomb in the Valley of the Kings at Thebes.

Roslyn A. Walker,The Arts of Africa at the Dallas Museum of Art, (Dallas: Dallas Museum of Art; New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2009), cat. 61, 182-183.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Head and upper torso of Seti I - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Thousands of years ago, the ancient Egyptians built magnificent temples for the deities they worshipped and monumental pyramids for the mummified remains of their rulers, who were believed to be both mortal and divine and endowed with great magical as well as spiritual powers.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Google Arts & Culture features content from over 2000 leading museums and archives who have partnered with the Google Cultural Institute to bring the world's treasures online.

# data[].attributes.body
I like how detailed this sculpture is and how the light compliments the material used, giving the piece a glow that catches you eyes.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The history of the Hermitage's Peacock Clock begins in 1777, when the Duchess of Kingston visited St Petersburg. Balls were given in the Russian capital in honour of this wealthy and distinguished guest. Grigory Potiomkin, who met the Duchess in society, learned of James Cox's magnificent mechanisms. Pandering to Catherine II's passion for collecting, the Prince commissioned the celebrated craftsman to make a monumental automaton with a clock for the Empress's Hermitage. In order to meet this expensive order as quickly as possible, Cox, whose financial affairs were currently not in the best of health, decided to use an existing mechanical peacock that featured in the Dublin lottery. He expanded the composition with a cockerel, owl and a clock mechanism with a dial incorporated into the head of a mushroom, and removed the snakes. To create his new automaton, Cox recruited the assistance of Friedrich Jury, a German craftsman who had settled in London. The Peacock Clock arrived in St Petersburg in 1781. The records of the Winter Palace chancellery listing the valuables that Catherine II acquired in that year include mention of two payments - on 30 September and 14 December - to the clockmaker Jury for a clock delivered from England. The payments amounted to 11,000 roubles (around 1,800 pounds sterling) and were made from the Empress's personal funds on the basis of a letter from Prince Potiomkin. The clock was brought to Russia in pieces. At Potiomkin's request the Russian mechanic Ivan Kulibin set it in working order. From 1797 to the present day the Peacock Clock has been one of the Hermitage's most famous exhibits. It is, moreover, the only large 18th-century automaton in the world to have come down to us unaltered and in a functioning condition. The State Hermitage Museum, St.Petersburg. Photo by Evgeniy Sinyaver.

Explore museums and play with Art Transfer, Pocket Galleries, Art Selfie, and more

Recommended

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Peacock Clock - James Cox - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The history of the Hermitage's Peacock Clock begins in 1777, when the Duchess of Kingston visited St Petersburg. Balls were given in the Russian capital in honour of this wealthy and distinguished guest.

# data[].attributes.body
I like this piece because the carvings on it remind me of something I used to do a lot. Its also apart of a bigger statue so I wonder where the other part(s) of it are.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Sculpture fragment - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Google Arts & Culture features content from over 2000 leading museums and archives who have partnered with the Google Cultural Institute to bring the world's treasures online.

# data[].attributes.headline
Per vederti megilo, Aldo Cibic, (2016/2016)

# data[].attributes.subject
Per vederti megilo, Aldo Cibic, (2016/2016)

# data[].attributes.body
I really like how simplified this sculpture is. It's literally a plant in two pieces of marble.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
This is a miniaturised landscape, a small upland realised with two types of stone: one is the base with, in the middle, a sapling bearing an inlet where a small ladder is inserted, realised in a darker marble, ideally functioning as an access to the upper side.

Explore museums and play with Art Transfer, Pocket Galleries, Art Selfie, and more

Recommended

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Per vederti meglio - Aldo Cibic - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This is a miniaturised landscape, a small upland realised with two types of stone: one is the base with, in the middle, a sapling bearing an inlet where a small ladder is inserted, realised in a darker marble, ideally functioning as an access to the upper side.

# data[].attributes.body
I am really into minimalist looking type of art and looking at this sculpture and the name of it really caught my eye.

# data[].attributes.headline
Cheeky Little Astronomer - Yinka Shonibare

# data[].attributes.subject
Cheeky Little Astronomer - Yinka Shonibare

# data[].attributes.body
This sculpture's colors and position reminds me of a curious young child.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Cheeky Little Astronomer - Yinka Shonibare RA - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Shonibare is interested in cultural identity, cultural exchange, and how things that symbolise one culture can have a hidden multicultural history – partic…

# data[].attributes.headline
Head of Guardian, Created in Japan, 13th century

# data[].attributes.subject
Head of Guardian, Created in Japan, 13th century

# data[].attributes.body
I like the furious eyes, furrowed brow, prominent nose, and open mouth present a ferocious mien typical of these Heavenly Guardians, whose role was to protect the temples sacred precincts.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
An over-life-size head from a figure of one of the Shitenno, the four guardian kings of the cardinal directions. The head was at one time owned by the Nara temple Kofuku-ji. The fiery eyes, furrowed brow, prominent nose, and open mouth present a ferocious mien typical of these Heavenly Guardians, whose role was to protect the temples sacred precincts.The head is carved of two blocks of wood, into which the topknot is inserted. Crystal inset eyes, painted on reverse. The filigree metal crown is a later replacement. Remains of polychrome on the outer surface, and traces of the painters graffiti on the interior.

Explore museums and play with Art Transfer, Pocket Galleries, Art Selfie, and more

Recommended

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Head of a Guardian - Unknown - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
An over-life-size head from a figure of one of the Shitenno, the four guardian kings of the cardinal directions. The head was at one time owned by the Nara temple Kofuku-ji.

# data[].attributes.body
I like this sculpture because how different it looks from other sculptures. It isn't like other sculptures where they use carving, instead the artists used photography to make it look like a body is inside.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Koh uses two-dimensional photography to create holographic, three-dimensional constructions. Photographs are digitally printed on transparent film and laminated between clear plastic sheets. These sheets are then stitched together with a heat gun to form a sculptural shape. This photo sculpture has a transparent surface that reflects the images of the world, and yet reveals the emptiness of its interior space. The overlapping planes create an illusion of indefinable depth and varying imagery, depending on the viewing angle. Stone Body-33 is a photo sculpture that uses the photographic images of a sculpture in the Louvre Museum on its surfaces. It creates an empty building with the façade of a fragmented body image.

Additional Items

Explore museums and play with Art Transfer, Pocket Galleries, Art Selfie, and more

Recommended

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Stone Body-33 - Koh, Myung Keun - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Koh uses two-dimensional photography to create holographic, three-dimensional constructions. Photographs are digitally printed on transparent film and laminated between clear plastic sheets. These sheets are then stitched together with a heat gun to form a sculptural shape. This photo sculpture has a transparent surface that reflects the images of the world, and yet reveals the emptiness of its interior space.

# data[].attributes.body
This is probably the most "exciting" sculpture I chose. I like the movement of the bulls. The name literally translates to "Green Restless Bulls." I don't feel the need to think about what the artist was trying to portray through this sculpture, because of how literal it is.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Toros inquietos verdes - Heriberto Juárez - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.body
This is an interesting sculpture to me because of the different and bright colors that are used and how they look like they are balancing on a tightrope.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Gulammohammed Sheikh's Balancing Act (2014) is a public sculptural installation inspired by an 18th century Jaipur School miniature painting depicting acrobats on a tightrope performing before a ruler and his court. The painting depicts the king and courtiers at what seems to be a moment of crisis; with a seemingly resigned king facing a dictating diwan on a balcony in the centre as noblemen on either side drag away two young princes. As Sheikh points out, the time of this painting's creation coincided with British takeover of Rajput kingdoms including Jaipur. The acrobats depicted in the miniature in various tricky positions can thus be read as allegories for the precariousness of the kingdom's political situation. In his sculptural translation of these acrobats, the artist has modified their facial features to resemble current political figures, thus conflating political intrigues of the present with a similarly turbulent period in the past. In doing so, he also points to art's enduring entanglement with politics, as a site to critically reflect on the present.

Additional Items

Explore museums and play with Art Transfer, Pocket Galleries, Art Selfie, and more

Recommended

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Balancing Act - Gulammohammed Sheikh - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Gulammohammed Sheikh's Balancing Act (2014) is a public sculptural installation inspired by an 18th century Jaipur School miniature painting depicting acrobats on a tightrope performing before a ruler and his court.

# data[].attributes.body
This sculpture is so beautiful because the scales and color is mesmerizing.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Blue and white porcelain statuette of a five-clawed dragon.

# data[].attributes.headline
Jade Sculpture: Sage King Yu Controlling the Flood

# data[].attributes.subject
Jade Sculpture: Sage King Yu Controlling the Flood

# data[].attributes.body
I like how from a distance it doesn't look that interesting but when you look closer there is a lot of detailed elements within the jade. I also like the use of jade, I feel it adds a delicate touch, that ages nicely.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
This sculpture of Yu the Great (also known as Sage King Yu) subduing the flood is crafted from jade from Mount Mileta in Hetian, Xinjiang. Resting on a bronze pedestal with gold inlay, the jade sculpture displays a high mountain with steep cliffs, ancient trees, caves, and streams. The work portrays the legendary scene in which Yu the Great subdued the raging deluge. Yu the Great is shown halfway up the mountain; his laborers work with hammers, axes, and levers in an attempt to redirect the flow of water. Processed and completed using the natural shape of the jade, this rarity is a treasure of Chinese sculpture.

full view of item (front)

Additional Items

Explore museums and play with Art Transfer, Pocket Galleries, Art Selfie, and more

Recommended

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Jade Sculpture: Sage King Yu Controlling the Flood - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This sculpture of Yu the Great (also known as Sage King Yu) subduing the flood is crafted from jade from Mount Mileta in Hetian, Xinjiang. Resting on a bronze pedestal with gold inlay, the jade sculpture displays a high mountain with steep cliffs, ancient trees, caves, and streams. The work portrays the legendary scene in which Yu the Great subdued the raging deluge.

# data[].attributes.body
The combination of the shoe and the chair was done so well and it looks very interesting. At first, you see one thing and then slowly, it morphs into the other thing.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Birgit Jürgenssen worked with constellations and relationships which were shaped by identification, gender-specific projections, and physicality. She placed her objects between everyday life and role play, which was enhanced by her membership in the feminist-oriented group of artists DIE DAMEN (with Evelyne Egerer, Birgit Jürgenssen, ONA B., Ingeborg Strobl, and Lawrence Weiner). By physically identifying with the material world, Jürgenssen displayed the latent power of objects and by doing so explored the general conditions of ideational depictions of the feminine.The sculpture Schuhsessel [ Shoe Chair] presents itself as a hermaphrodite between a chair and a stiletto and at the same time displays properties of a sexually charged cult object.

Explore museums and play with Art Transfer, Pocket Galleries, Art Selfie, and more

Recommended

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
[Shoe Chair] - Birgit Jürgenssen - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Birgit Jürgenssen worked with constellations and relationships which were shaped by identification, gender-specific projections, and physicality. She placed her objects between everyday life and role play, which was enhanced by her membership in the feminist-oriented group of artists DIE DAMEN (with Evelyne Egerer, Birgit Jürgenssen, ONA B., Ingeborg Strobl, and Lawrence Weiner).

# data[].attributes.headline
Tomie Ohtake (Embarkment at José Menino Beach, Santos,SP.) [2008]

# data[].attributes.subject
Tomie Ohtake (Embarkment at José Menino Beach, Santos,SP.) [2008]

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
15 meter tall steel sculpture, painted with automotive paint, weighs 60 metric tons.
Made possible by the city of Santos, sponsored by Cosipa/Usiminas, Gafisa and Yune Incorporadora, with the collaboration of Jorge Utsunomiya and Vera Fujisaki.

Explore museums and play with Art Transfer, Pocket Galleries, Art Selfie, and more

Recommended

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Embarkment at José Menino Beach, Santos,SP. - Tomie Ohtake - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
15 meter tall steel sculpture, painted with automotive paint, weighs 60 metric tons. Made possible by the city of Santos, sponsored by Cosipa/Usiminas, Gafisa and Yune Incorporadora, with the collaboration of Jorge Utsunomiya and Vera Fujisaki. Explore museums and play with Art Transfer, Pocket Galleries, Art Selfie, and more Recommended

# data[].attributes.headline
Coatlicue, creator is unknown, 1325/1521

# data[].attributes.subject
Coatlicue, creator is unknown, 1325/1521

# data[].attributes.body
The Coaticue was the goddess of the land, mother of Huitzilopochtli. This artifact reminds me of Indiana Jones.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Together with the Sun Stone, the Coatlicue is another representative piece of the National Museum of Anthropology. It is a colossal work, not only for its size, but for manufacture and symbolism.Coatlicue was the goddess of the land, mother of Huitzilopochtli, Coyolyauhqui and the Centzonhuitznahua (the four hundred stars of the south). The myth tells that Coatlicue was sweeping the top of the Coatepetl hill, when a ball of white feathers fell down from the sky; she kept it in her chest and was miraculously pregnant of Huitzilopochtli. The story tells that Coyolxauhqui and the rest of her brothers, angry at the mysterious conception of their mother decided to kill her. When they were preparing to do it, Huitzilopochtli was born, with all his warrior attire, carrying the chimalli and the xiuhcoatl (serpent of fire) arm he uses to destroy his) brothers and kill his sister beheading her and throwing her from the top of the Coatepetl being completely dismembered. This myth created by the Mexicas to legitimize their own patron god, narrates the birth of the new sun, which will rule in the new world.The sculpture stands out for its detail and the great quantity of symbols that it has. The head is formed by two snakes that meet face to face. She has a heart and cut hands necklace. The breast is saggy which associate it with an old woman. The skirt is elaborated with the bodies interlaced of rattlesnakes (hence the name of the goddess: "The one in the skirt of snakes"). The low extremities are eagle claws; in fact to the sides bird feathers can be seen. The bottom part of the sculpture is engraved with the image of Tlaltecuhtli.Mtro. Hugo García Capistrán

Explore museums and play with Art Transfer, Pocket Galleries, Art Selfie, and more

Recommended

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Coatlicue - unknown - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Together with the Sun Stone, the Coatlicue is another representative piece of the National Museum of Anthropology. It is a colossal work, not only for its size, but for manufacture and symbolism.Coatlicue was the goddess of the land, mother of Huitzilopochtli, Coyolyauhqui and the Centzonhuitznahua (the four hundred stars of the south).

# data[].attributes.body
This sculpture is really simple and cute, but it also reminds me of my childhood.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Yoshitomo Nara's sculpture Your Dog embodies the spirit of a child's playmate as well as that of a menacing creature, larger than life. Its huge scale reminds viewers how the world looks through the eyes of a child. Nara's work has attracted large audiences around the world, from fine-art collectors to commercial consumers, as it is shown in museums and galleries as well as sold in the forms of T- shirts, children's books, and other commercial goods.

Explore museums and play with Art Transfer, Pocket Galleries, Art Selfie, and more

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Your Dog - Yoshitomo Nara - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Yoshitomo Nara's sculpture Your Dog embodies the spirit of a child's playmate as well as that of a menacing creature, larger than life. Its huge scale remi...

# data[].attributes.body
This sculpture really reminded me of Rodin's "The Kiss." I like how the form of it is a little incomplete, and the overall simplicity of it. When you first read the name you might accidentally say "insatiable" but it really says "insiable." I don't know if the name was spelled wrong on purpose, but it feels incomplete like the statue, leaving the viewer "wanting more."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Insiable thing - Kim KI-Hoon - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Google Arts & Culture features content from over 2000 leading museums and archives who have partnered with the Google Cultural Institute to bring the world's treasures online.

# data[].attributes.body
To me the beauty of this piece comes from its ability to capture the moment it was based on. Just by looking at a still image alone you can tell what way the bulls were moving and what the were doing  before they were captured by this piece, that is why i enjoy this artwork in specific

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Toros inquietos - Heriberto Juárez - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Bulls standing on a common surface and charging in different directions

# data[].attributes.body
This sculpture incorporates an ocean theme, involving mythology. Looks very elegant.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Large silver and parcel gilt nautilus cup and cover. Cover cast with Jupiter astride an eagle with thunderbolts raised in right hand; surrounded by a rim of female grotesques. Shell body with dolphin's head and female term mounts. Stem formed of Neptune riding a hippocamp; mermaid and shell feet. This spectacular Kunstkammer object is one of the finest examples of antiquarian plate acquired by George IV. On its arrival in 1823, it joined a growing collection of virtuoso sideboard cups of varying dates and nationalities. Although once considered to be the work of Benvenuto Cellini, it bears the mark of Nikolaus Schmidt (master 1582), a Nuremberg goldsmith trained in the workshop of Wenzel Jamnitzer (1508-85). This is one of Schmidt's most celebrated pieces although other important works by him survive in the treasuries in Vienna and Dresden. His work is notable for its superb quality, fine sculptural elements and frequent incorporation of natural rarities. From the 16th century, nautilus shells from the western Pacific were highly prized by collectors and in consequence they were often very richly mounted. The outer layer of this shell has been stripped away to reveal the nacreous surface below and the heel has been elaborately carved. The marine origins of the nautilus are echoed in the supporting figures of Neptune, mermaids and hippocamps (seahorses). An anonymous drawing in Nuremberg (Germanisches National Museum) depicts the cup shortly after it was made. An inscription on the back, dated 1610, implies that the cup was a recent gift, presented to the writer by a relation, for his new house. It has been suggested that the cup may have belonged to the wealthy Peller family, whose Nuremberg house, built in 1610, had a gable decorated, like this cup, with a figure of Jupiter. Nothing more is known of the history of the cup until it appeared in the celebrated 32-day sale at Wanstead House, Essex, in 1822. Wanstead's heiress Catherine Tylney Long (d. 1825) had married the Duke of Wellington's disreputable nephew William Pole Wellesley (1788-1857) in 1812. Within ten years his reckless extravagance had reduced the estate to ruin; Wanstead's fabulous treasures were sold and the house demolished. Nuremberg townmark and maker's mark of Nikolaus Schmidt

Explore museums and play with Art Transfer, Pocket Galleries, Art Selfie, and more

Recommended

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Nautilus cup - Nikolaus Schmidt - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Large silver and parcel gilt nautilus cup and cover. Cover cast with Jupiter astride an eagle with thunderbolts raised in right hand; surrounded by a rim of female grotesques. Shell body with dolphin's head and female term mounts. Stem formed of Neptune riding a hippocamp; mermaid and shell feet.

# data[].attributes.body
I like this statue because it looks like the famous comedian Beetlejuice.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Google Arts & Culture features content from over 2000 leading museums and archives who have partnered with the Google Cultural Institute to bring the world's treasures online.

# data[].attributes.body
I don't have much to say about this except that he is friend-shaped and i like him a lot

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Hedgehog - Unknown - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Google Arts & Culture features content from over 2000 leading museums and archives who have partnered with the Google Cultural Institute to bring the world's treasures online.

# data[].attributes.body
I like this because its kind of scary looking. It has a really strange look to it, but it looks like a person so it look a bit odd.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Heracles - Antoine Bourdelle - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Google Arts & Culture features content from over 2000 leading museums and archives who have partnered with the Google Cultural Institute to bring the world's treasures online.

# data[].attributes.body
I like the ominous look of the sculpture. I also like the colors of it.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Red Pyramid - Libensky, Stanislav (Czech, 1921-2002), Artist - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Google Arts & Culture features content from over 2000 leading museums and archives who have partnered with the Google Cultural Institute to bring the world's treasures online.

# data[].attributes.headline
Claudia Bas Relief e Tarquinia Bas Relief

# data[].attributes.subject
Claudia Bas Relief e Tarquinia Bas Relief

# data[].attributes.body
I like the darkness of the sculpture and the minimalist style. It makes me want to look at it for long periods of time and think about what the sculptor intended when they made it. It makes me calm.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Claudia Bas Relief e Tarquinia Bas Relief - Beverly Pepper - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Google Arts & Culture features content from over 2000 leading museums and archives who have partnered with the Google Cultural Institute to bring the world's treasures online.

# data[].attributes.headline
Martin, Into the Corner, You Should Be Ashamed of Yourself (1992)

# data[].attributes.subject
Martin, Into the Corner, You Should Be Ashamed of Yourself (1992)

# data[].attributes.body
I like this sculptures because the name is funny to me. It also reminds me of how I used to always get scoldings.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Martin, Into the Corner, You Should Be Ashamed of Yourself - Martin Kippenberger - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Google Arts & Culture features content from over 2000 leading museums and archives who have partnered with the Google Cultural Institute to bring the world's treasures online.

# data[].attributes.body
I like this sculpture because It looks minimalistic, but still gets the message across in an abstract way. I just think it looks really cool and almost reminds me of a tree.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Railroad tieChung Hyun created a new type of figurative installation during the late 1990s to the early 2000s. In this piece, Chung used railroad ties to show the distorted human body bordering on the abstract. The artist said, "One day, when I saw a deserted sleeper, I felt its silent suffering under the rails standing against the heavy weight of trains and bad weather. The feeling was intense. The existence of the sleeper dawned on me just like that of a human being." According to the artist, he did not see the tie merely as material but as a suffering being. He saw it as a life form with a history. This is why the group of tie figures has appeal to viewers. It is impressive, not because it is a recycled material, but because the history of suffering of the figures communicates to us as if they were human beings.

Explore museums and play with Art Transfer, Pocket Galleries, Art Selfie, and more

Recommended

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
A Man Standing Upside Down - Chung, Hyun - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Railroad tieChung Hyun created a new type of figurative installation during the late 1990s to the early 2000s. In this piece, Chung used railroad ties to show the distorted human body bordering on the abstract. The artist said, "One day, when I saw a deserted sleeper, I felt its silent suffering under the rails standing against the heavy weight of trains and bad weather.

# data[].attributes.headline
No Mask of a young woman - N/A (1700/1899)

# data[].attributes.subject
No Mask of a young woman - N/A (1700/1899)

# data[].attributes.body
This mask reminds me of horror movies because some killers, like Jason, have masks with no expression.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Nō theatre masks are the opportunity for very subtle expression in Japanese sculpture. The wooden masks are carved and then painted. In this case the mask is whitened with a substance containing crushed egg-shell in an adhesive fluid. Finally the hair and features are painted.

The form of modern Japanese Nō performances is closely related to that of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, when Nō was developed by the masters Kan'ami and Zeami. There are a number of standard masks which are used in different dramas. The mask itself is more central than in any other drama, and is treated as containing a spirit of its own. A skilfully carved mask like this one will appear to have subtle changes of expression depending on the way in which the wearer turns his head.. This is one of several variations of a young woman mask based on an original design by Zeami. It is signed Norinari and Hōshō Daiyū.

Explore museums and play with Art Transfer, Pocket Galleries, Art Selfie, and more

Recommended

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Nō mask of a young woman - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Nō theatre masks are the opportunity for very subtle expression in Japanese sculpture. The wooden masks are carved and then painted. In this case the mask is whitened with a substance containing crushed egg-shell in an adhesive fluid. Finally the hair and features are painted.

# data[].attributes.headline
Rommel (The Frog Boy) Bernal, RENATO BARJA, JR. (2016)

# data[].attributes.subject
Rommel (The Frog Boy) Bernal, RENATO BARJA, JR. (2016)

# data[].attributes.body
This sculpture reminds me of quarantine and specifically this game called Identity V because my friends and I would use to play it a lot and it looks actually somewhat similar to a character in the game.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Rommel (The Frog Boy) Bernal - RENATO BARJA, JR. - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Google Arts & Culture features content from over 2000 leading museums and archives who have partnered with the Google Cultural Institute to bring the world's treasures online.

# data[].attributes.body
I am interested in this sculpture because of it's aluminum form and unique subject of a dog and a figure. The sculptor, Keith Haring, is also one of my favorite artists and his art always stands out to me.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
This work is a rare sculptural piece made of raw aluminum, which Haring specifically requested to be maintained and polished, "like a jewel." The piece can be viewed from any angle. A large-scale outdoor sculpture in the same red motif was donated to his hometown of Kutztown, Pennsylvania in 1992, where it is still beloved by its inhabitants today.

Explore museums and play with Art Transfer, Pocket Galleries, Art Selfie, and more

Recommended

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Untitled (Figure Balancing on Dog) - Keith Haring - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This work is a rare sculptural piece made of raw aluminum, which Haring specifically requested to be maintained and polished, "like a jewel." The piece can be viewed from any angle. A large-scale outdoor sculpture in the same red motif was donated to his hometown of Kutztown, Pennsylvania in 1992, where it is still beloved by its inhabitants today.

# data[].attributes.body
I think this is really interesting because I like the medium used. It reminds me of cardboard almost with its corrugations and I think that makes it unique

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
I reconstructed some questions about absolute values and desires into a relative space through familiar objects.

Additional Items

Explore museums and play with Art Transfer, Pocket Galleries, Art Selfie, and more

Recommended

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Sliced Images 'La Vierge et l'Enfant - Park, Chan Girl - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
I reconstructed some questions about absolute values and desires into a relative space through familiar objects. Additional Items Explore museums and play with Art Transfer, Pocket Galleries, Art Selfie, and more Recommended

# data[].attributes.headline
Unique Forms Of Continuity In Space (Umberto Boccioni 1913 cast in 1972)

# data[].attributes.subject
Unique Forms Of Continuity In Space (Umberto Boccioni 1913 cast in 1972)

# data[].attributes.body
I enjoy how the lines in this piece flow to give the appearance of the wind blowing through cloth or water flowing over someone sideways

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Unique forms of continuity in space - Umberto Boccioni - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
New aesthetic Speed and movement are the main themes of the Italian futurists. They regard the classical marble or bronze sculpture as entirely inappropria...

# data[].attributes.body
I've always really loved anything neon, if its neon paintings or neon lights being hung up so this was very appealing to me. Also the way this is shaped is really unique.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Estructura lumínica Madí 6 - Gyula Kosice - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Google Arts & Culture features content from over 2000 leading museums and archives who have partnered with the Google Cultural Institute to bring the world's treasures online.

# data[].attributes.headline
Old Arrow Maker, Edmonia Lewis (modeled 1866, carved 1872)

# data[].attributes.subject
Old Arrow Maker, Edmonia Lewis (modeled 1866, carved 1872)

# data[].attributes.body
Zooming in on the sculpture really shows how much Lewis put a lot of detail into it. The hairs have small incisions which really blends well into the head.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Old Arrow Maker - Edmonia Lewis - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Google Arts & Culture features content from over 2000 leading museums and archives who have partnered with the Google Cultural Institute to bring the world's treasures online.

# data[].attributes.body
I like this statue because this dog looks like it seen some stuff in China.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Google Arts & Culture features content from over 2000 leading museums and archives who have partnered with the Google Cultural Institute to bring the world's treasures online.

# data[].attributes.body
This sculpture stands out to me because it is able to portray a realistic-looking spider using only copper wire.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Spider 58135 - Cheong, Kwang Ho - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Google Arts & Culture features content from over 2000 leading museums and archives who have partnered with the Google Cultural Institute to bring the world's treasures online.

# data[].attributes.headline
Standing Shaka Buddha - Kaikei (c. 1210)

# data[].attributes.subject
Standing Shaka Buddha - Kaikei (c. 1210)

# data[].attributes.body
This sculpture has a lot of age to it and it radiates peace energy.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Kaikei, the great master sculptor of the Kamakura period (1185-1333), established the primary school of sculpture that produced statuary for the major temples in Nara and Kyoto. Especially important among Kaikei sculptures is a distinctive style of Buddha image that is refined and graceful, and clothed in deeply folded and decoratively draped robes.

The Kimbell's sculpture is a rare image of the historical Buddha, Shaka ( Shakyamuni), who is identified by the abhayamudra (gesture of reassurance) of the right hand. His left foot advancing, the Buddha appears to move forward to greet the devotee with an expression of gentle and profound compassion. The beautifully proportioned figure is wrapped in an elegant robe that covers the body in rhythmical folds, rippling across the stomach and cascading over the arms. Entirely covered with gold lacquer, the robe is further embellished with a floral and geometric pattern of fine-cut gold leaf.

The Kamakura period saw a revival of the historical Buddha in a new type of image-as a divine savior who descends from heaven to meet the faithful. This image, called "Shaka raigo," is documented in paintings of the early thirteenth century; the Kimbell statue is a rare example of this type in three-dimensional form, and one of only two known images of Shaka created by Kaikei.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Standing Shaka Buddha - Kaikei - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Kaikei, the great master sculptor of the Kamakura period (1185-1333), established the primary school of sculpture that produced statuary for the major temples in Nara and Kyoto. Especially important among Kaikei sculptures is a distinctive style of Buddha image that is refined and graceful, and clothed in deeply folded and decoratively draped robes.

# data[].attributes.headline
The Young Family by Patricia Piccinini, 2002-2003

# data[].attributes.subject
The Young Family by Patricia Piccinini, 2002-2003

# data[].attributes.body
This sculpture seems really interesting because the sculptures look like human/dog hybrids.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Young Family - Patricia Piccinini - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Google Arts & Culture features content from over 2000 leading museums and archives who have partnered with the Google Cultural Institute to bring the world's treasures online.

# data[].attributes.headline
Constelaciones No. 1 from La Ciudad Hidroespacial (The Hydrospatial City) (1970)

# data[].attributes.subject
Constelaciones No. 1 from La Ciudad Hidroespacial (The Hydrospatial City) (1970)

# data[].attributes.body
I like this one because I like the color blue. I also like how it looks like the night sky.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Constelaciones No. 1 from La Ciudad Hidroespacial (The Hydrospatial City) - Gyula Kosice - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Google Arts & Culture features content from over 2000 leading museums and archives who have partnered with the Google Cultural Institute to bring the world's treasures online.

# data[].attributes.body
I like how vibrant the colors are and how they contrast against each other.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Details

Title: Venus-D1

Date Created: 2007

Physical Dimensions: w1750 x h800 cm

Type: Sculpture, Installation

Medium: Digital print

Critic's Note: The Alchemy of Image Ⅰ. The works the artist has created are derived from virtual, worldly things. Viewers will be surprised when they realize that his works- a deer, an elephant, an ostrich, a rabbit, a crocodile and so on - are mixed with parts of the human body, and they will be amazed at his lively imagination, wit, and ideas. However, those who look at his works more closely will be surprised that they are similar to shadow puppets from childhood. Thus, his sculptures are based on 'The Alchemy of Image'. For instance, Spider is composed of eight human legs, and the spider's body is made from two facing heads. In Deer, not only are two spread hands used as horns, but the deer's face is composed of female torsi, and the bulging breasts play the part of eyes. He has painted with 'powder coated' techniques, using emerald green in Spider and light yellow-green in Deer. What is the crocodile doing? The gaping mouth is composed of held hands. A torso with bulging breasts takes the place of the nape of the neck. Four human legs extend from the sides of a body which has more than ten mounds supporting the sharp body of the crocodile. All these things are creatures from Shin Chi Hyun's adroit imagination. The sculptures, which are made out of resin, have common points on smooth surfaces. That is how he communicates the feeling of virtual images created by computers in a true manner. The images of animals are lacking in realism, like mannequins with slick surfaces. The background of his works takes place during a virtual era where computers have taken the lead. There are the characteristics and peculiar esthetic sense of the digital age we could not have imagined in the analog era. His sculptures look like the surfaces of a great many virtual images created on monitors. According to the artist, the surfaces are no more than a series of points manipulated by numerical data. 'The alchemy of images' mentioned earlier signifies the role of artists in a world managed by computers. In other words, with the change of the times, sulptors in the digital era have come to create qualitatively different 'monsters'with computer programs while sculptors in the analog era represented objects with marble, bronze, metal, woods, and others. That difference is as significant as the conversion of a whole paradigm. Today, sculptors have been absorbed in making inherent shapes of things transmuted by 'alchemy' in the secret site of the computer monitors against the mystery of nature based on an austere proportion. The oddly-shaped things Shin Chi Hyun creates are only possible in an environment controlled by computers, which means new circumstances for creation, a period advent of image composition where everything seems possible. Ⅱ. Before his latest works, which have the characteristic of smooth surfaces, Shin Chi Hyun was addicted to the beauty of a set unit as a result of the constant module. Modeled figures of objects were his major work with piles of acrylic, or form boards, and a square bar with uniform thickness. His works were designed by processing elaborate scans on the computer monitor, and finally assembled by piling boards into a spherical shape. His works, The Faces Made in the Past, Bukhansan, Venus, Caryatid, etc. are accumulations by mechanical repetition. However, the repeated aesthetic eventually produces images similar with matter, and it has a limit which causes a mechanical impression and extreme artificiality. But, as far as the digital creatures controlled by computer reveal a new aesthetic value and criterion, the limitation can be justified. In art, experiment is either a struggle or a cooperation with technology. In that sense, Shin Chi Hyun's work stands on the side of expanding and converting the concept of sculpture. Shin's works, such as Spider or Ostrich, are conceptual conversions of sculptures in the high-tech computer era. His recent works, which were to turn pieces of the human body into models of animals, show the aesthetic value of mechanical combination. This is a result of absolute measurement and the product of planning. This visual antinomy from Shin's imagination that could be both animal and human body is the source of an image game through visual tricks. It is as if someone could imagine a dog from a shadow puppet on the wall. In making shadow puppets, thumbs could be a dog's ear and two outstretched fingers could be a dog's mouth. What we can see depends on what we focus on. Someone who focuses on the hands sees hands, and someone who concentrates on the shadow on the wall could see a barking dog. This visual antinomy is the ultimate conceptual cardinal point and the core, as seen in Shin's works. In respect to Gestalt psychology, his works indicate that there is a problem with our perceptions, association of ideas, and habitual practice that comes from perception and association of ideas. It also confirms that the problem comes from the alchemy of images.

Artist's Education: Hongik University. Seoul, Korea. M.F.A., Sculpture.

Explore museums and play with Art Transfer, Pocket Galleries, Art Selfie, and more

Recommended

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Venus-D1 - Shin, Chihyun - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Details Title: Venus-D1 Date Created: 2007 Physical Dimensions: w1750 x h800 cm Type: Sculpture, Installation Medium: Digital print Critic's Note: The Alchemy of Image Ⅰ. The works the artist has created are derived from virtual, worldly things.

# data[].attributes.body
I like this one because it reminds me of a bunch of straws stacked on top of each other, and when I was little I used to play with straws and do things like stick them together

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Details

Title: Air Air

Creator: Choi, Jeonghwa

Date Created: 2012

Location: Perth International Art Festival

Critic's Note: Choi Jeong-Hwa's Plastic Paradise Jeonghwa Choi, Vernacular and Pop Art Since the mid-1990s, Jeonghwa Choi has been working as an interior decorator, installation artist, and art director. In Motel Cactus (1997), the first film that Choi worked as an art director, the major backdrop of the film "Room 407" was decorated with inexpensive objects such as a red light emitted from a nearby butcher shop and cheap plastic red flowers. In the first episode of the film, a woman(Jin Hee-Kyung) ticks his boy-friend(Jung U-Sung) off by asking him why he values the painting of waterfalls "in the style of Ibalso" so much. "The style of Ibalso" refers to the art work of cheap and vulgar taste, commonly displayed on the wall of a barber shop. The waterfall painting inside the Motel Cactus contradicts to the original name of its building as the name "Motel Cactus" resonates with the image of the desert, and more interestingly, the painting is filled with sedated tones, which are reminiscent of the traditional Korean painting. However, spectacular scenery of waterfall in the painting can be rarely found in Korea. The wide waterfalls stretching horizontally rather remind the audience of Niagara Falls in the United States or Canada than anything typical to the natural landscape of Korea. The setting for Motel Cactus effectively illustrates particular direction and sensibility that the artist has been pursuing since the late 1980s; he made his first shocking appearances in the Korean art world as a member of an experimental artist's group "the Museum Group" in 1987. Room 407, for instance, is replete with not only cheap products but also with things that do not have any clear cultural origins in their artistic styles and themes?as noted in the example of an "Ibalso" type painting. The title of the film, "Motel Cactus," has such odd foreign association, and the red neon-sign of the Motel Cactus blinking outside of the motel, to properly speaking, neither represent mass consumer culture, often imported from the United States, nor traditional Korean culture. Kobena Mercer, author of Pop Art and Vernacular Culture (2007), coined the concept of "vernacular" to describe cultural products under the influence of Western Popular culture and Pop Art in non-Western societies. Originally, "vernacular" refers to the culture of 'indigenous slaves', opposite to refined foreign language of aristocrats, for example, Latin in Europe or Sanskrit in India. However, as Mercer notes, "vernacular" in the post-colonial period indicates a culture that occupies a somewhat vague area--between 'mass consumer culture' after industrialization and westernization and traditional culture or crafts.(1) For instance, imitations of folk cultural products for tourists can be said to be occupying this intermediary area between these two poles, being neither mass consumer culture nor traditional culture. Choi's Ladies and Gentlemen (2000), indeed, combines elements of shamanistic religion, Western popular culture, consumerism and traditional crafts altogether. Considering the hybrid nature of Choi's work, there might be controversy as to whether his art can be considered Korean-style pop art or not; in so far as the artist has integrated fragments of ordinary life into the realm of fine art, one can argue that his artworks is a type of Pop Art; yet, the culture of "Sijangtong," literally meaning the old marketplace, upon which Choi primarily drew his artistic inspirations, clearly differs from mass and popular culture for Pop Artists in Western Europe and the United States. What Choi has been lauded as the beauty of the old marketplace culture is, in fact, the opposite of the media or "supermarket" culture that Andy Warhol appropriated for his artworks during the 1960s. The culture of "Sijangtong"--unlike mass consumer culture of affluent postwar Western society--has an aspect of lower culture as the result of creating cheap and sometimes fake consumer products from non-western, developing countries. Moreover, Choi's interior decoration of the "Ssamzie" Sport Building in 1998, in Seoul, for which he borrowed many design elements and details from the tent of "Pojangmacha," snack stalls on the streets, and "Chirashi," a Japanese expression of scatterings or leaflets of advertisement flyers, and Plastic Paradise (1997), made of piling up plastic baskets, are a mere passe-- in the artist's description, "the culture that we should miss if it disappears," and "unsophisticated, yet familiar vintage culture." If the image of Elvis Presley in Warhol's silk-screen in 1962 were an icon of mass culture in the late 1950s, the plastic baskets in Choi's Plastic Paradise similarly represent the obsolete type of consumer culture that belong to previous generations in Korea. Choi seized upon his exhibition in Bangkok as an opportunity and ordered plastic baskets from Thailand, where sophisticated mass consumer culture is not yet fully developed, especially compared to mass and consumer culture in South Korea. For plastic which symbolized "Shingara," a new trend of consumer products in Korea during the 1970s, have become considered "vintage" that has no longer occupied the main stage of Korean consumer culture since 1990s. Jeonghwa Choi and Nostalgia Why, then, has Choi begun finding inspiration for his artwork in outdated, vintage culture during the late 1990s? His works emerged, for the most part, within the historic context when younger generations of Korean artists appropriated ready-made 'objects' coupled with the advent of post-modernist discussion in the Korean art world. At the same time, the 1990s saw Korean mass consumer culture began to rapidly diverge, as best exemplified in the film Chilsu and Mansu (1989). Choi began working as an art director, overarching the total visual representation of particular brands and projects throughout the 1990s, and successfully launching his initial minimalist design concept for fashion boutiques (Yun-Su Park's "All Style" and "Botticelli"). Stylistically speaking, these interior shops were complete breaks from his object-based artworks with the Museum group; it was, however, due to Choi's ability to utilize many artistic and cultural styles and tastes that had recently become available to his disposal, with the increasing diversification and polarization of consumer preferences in Korea during the 1990s. After a series of legal restrictions regarding international Korean travelers and taxing system were lifted in Korea after the 1988 Olympics, more international consumer products and popular culture become readily available in Korea during this time. Choi's vintage culture, thus, represents his nostalgia for unsophisticated and "vernacular" consumer culture of 1970s and 1980s; is a tower built of simple plastic baskets, a common type of inexpensive household goods that were produced mainly for low-income families during the 1970s. With it, he also expressed his own concepts of time and history. But for Choi, the vintage materials become significant less for understanding the artist's desire to preserve and recycle past cultures alone. In classical cultural theory, to associate plastic with the concept of paradise remains paradoxical. According to Mythologies (1957), a seminal account of popular culture by Roland Barthes, a French literary theorist and philosopher, plastic, in his dystopic vision, is regarded as a symbolic material that clearly evinces cultural characteristics of post-war consumer society lacking its stable identity. Plastic can be made into any kinds of object just by imitating appearances, be it either natural or unnatural. In this context, the original materials that were once essential to particular objects become undermined.(2) In addition, plastic is generally classified as the most environmentally hazardous material. However, Choi interprets plastic differently. Looking at plastic baskets, he imagines a paradise. The artist, of course, does not think that plastic baskets at the old Sijangtong can manifest affluence. He rather seems to enjoy building installations composed of cheap household items because such work reflects the nature and habits of the people in old marketplaces: "They stack everything because they are too poor to throw anything away." Here the material called "plastic," which renders everything made from it cheap, is meant to create an illusion of "affluence." In this regard, Choi's work of plastic baskets embodies the hard life of the old Sijangtong people, not only for its lack of refined visual effects, but also for its symbolic meaning associated with its basic material and method of installation. What is more, Choi transforms plastic into an environmentally friendly substance. From Whoever, Whatever, In Whichever Ways (1994-2004), a collaborative project that Choi developed along with director Jae-Yeong Lee and photographer Hyeong-Geun Oh, he evolved Happy Happy or Happy Together projects. These projects invited viewers to bring plastic waste to an art museum or a specific place, as designated by the artist, and were on view in different parts of the world (Kagoshima, Shanghai, Belgium, and the United Kingdom) for almost a decade. Audiences brought waste household items they had not been used for years at home and hung on metal structures provided by "Gasum Visual Development Laboratory", a design firm run by Choi. The Happy Together project was finally introduced to Korea during the Seoul Design Olympiad in 2008. In the Happy Happy series, plastic was accorded with a new, positive meaning; it was no longer a symbol of an obsolete consumer culture. It was used to deliver even a message about environmental issue. Thus, plastic as a symbol of consumerism of the bygone era was reborn as a material ushering in a utopian future; plastic was well adapted to Choi's core concept of art?its open and viewer participatory nature. For nostalgia, as Andreas Huyssen notes, brings in a specific utopia in a past, expressing its serious longing for the bygone era; simultaneously, it involves with a longing for a future that has yet to be realized. Paradise! Paradise! Choi's work can be looked upon as both easy and difficult; this is not just because his artistic resources such as familiar flowers, robots, and baskets are too banal and sometimes unpredictably vulgar. Instead, the idealistic messages imbedded in his artwork are allegedly too simple and straightforward for the audience to accept at face value. Particularly, the too-good-to be-true message behind the cynical appearance of his artworks discourages his audiences from perceiving exactly what Choi's work aspires to communicate. Encountering Plastic Paradise and Super Flower (2000) in exhibitions, the viewer may wonder and ask a question: What actual relationship do old marketplace people and Choi have if cheap tourist goods and plastic baskets are adopted to symbolize an outdated, vernacular consumer culture? In an interview with EBS(Education Broadcasting System, Seoul) TV aired in 2004, Choi appeared to be a man with a sense of mission to uncover the hidden aesthetic values of second-hand items in run-down antique shops in Jongno or an old low-income apartment complex in Dongdaemun built in the late 1960s. However, I am doubtful about how closely Choi's real life experience can have some real connections with the lives of those junk shop owners or residents of shabby apartments. To put it bluntly, these junk shop owners and apartment residents are merely those that have been left behind, those who have not received the benefits of mass consumer culture in Korea with rapid development over the last two decades. Choi's artworks comprised of plastic waste might appear to be no more than an arty event that regularly occurs inside art museums or design fairs. (Of course, he can promote the impact of public relation on environment issues through these events.) After all, Choi's will most likely become the target of criticism: Choi idealized mixed vintage cultures while disregarding the economic situation of those people whose consumer culture and living condition as outdated as ever. Nevertheless, I remain ambivalent about the future of Choi's on-going projects as I cannot entirely give up either my expectation or doubts about the artist's idealism for now. Dong-Yeon Koh (Art Critic)

Artist's Education: Hongik University, Seoul, Korea. B.F.A. Painting

Additional Items

Explore museums and play with Art Transfer, Pocket Galleries, Art Selfie, and more

Recommended

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Air Air - Choi, Jeonghwa - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Details Title: Air Air Creator: Choi, Jeonghwa Date Created: 2012 Location: Perth International Art Festival Critic's Note: Choi Jeong-Hwa's Plastic Paradise Jeonghwa Choi, Vernacular and Pop Art Since the mid-1990s, Jeonghwa Choi has been working as an interior decorator, installation artist, and art director.

# data[].attributes.headline
Paravento "Facing Histories – An artistic study of the fusion between medieval Japanese art and contemporary art" Yumi Karasumaru (2016/2016)

# data[].attributes.subject
Paravento "Facing Histories – An artistic study of the fusion between medieval Japanese art and contemporary art" Yumi Karasumaru (2016/2016)

# data[].attributes.body
I really like the blend of cultures and art styles in this piece and how its contrasted with the color.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Since the beginning of the 90's the research of Yumi Karasumaru has developed in parallel between pictorial image and performance, pursuing a strong cultural investigation on the relation between past and present of her native country, Japan. In this work she developed an in-depth research on the theme "Facing Histories", on a folding screen which has become the support of an integration of medieval and contemporary Japanese art.

Explore museums and play with Art Transfer, Pocket Galleries, Art Selfie, and more

Recommended

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Paravento "Facing Histories - An artistic study of the fusion between medieval Japanese art and contemporary art" - Yumi Karasumaru - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Since the beginning of the 90's the research of Yumi Karasumaru has developed in parallel between pictorial image and performance, pursuing a strong cultural investigation on the relation between past and present of her native country, Japan.

# data[].attributes.headline
Nuestro Pueblo (heart element) [1921/1954]

# data[].attributes.subject
Nuestro Pueblo (heart element) [1921/1954]

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Watts Towers / Nuestro Pueblo (heart element) - Sabato (Simon) Rodia - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
(Detail: heart element)The Watts Towers, called "Nuestro Pueblo" ("Our Village" in Spanish) by the artist, is a single wedge-shaped site containing 17 integrated sculptural metal and concrete towers ranging up to 99.5 feet high (30 m), various architectural and sculptural features, and mosaic panels and pavement.

# data[].attributes.body
I really liked the materials and colors used as its made of different colored glass pieces. I also like the meaning of reviewing the past to learn.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Taking a Lesson from the Past - Buddha2004 - Kang, Yong Meon - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The glory and earthly desires of Buddha is represented by a moving sculpture.

# data[].attributes.headline
Fourth Position Front, on the Left LegEdgar DegasOriginal model 1882-1895; this cast (1919-1921)

# data[].attributes.subject
Fourth Position Front, on the Left LegEdgar DegasOriginal model 1882-1895; this cast (1919-1921)

# data[].attributes.body
This sculpture gained my attention because I thought the figure was very beautiful and well formed.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Fourth Position Front, on the Left Leg - Edgar Degas - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Google Arts & Culture features content from over 2000 leading museums and archives who have partnered with the Google Cultural Institute to bring the world's treasures online.

# data[].attributes.body
I really like all of the different bright colors and patterns on this sculpture. I also like what the sculpture is of and the little astronomer reminds me of a curious child.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Cheeky Little Astronomer - Yinka Shonibare RA - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Shonibare is interested in cultural identity, cultural exchange, and how things that symbolise one culture can have a hidden multicultural history – partic…

# data[].attributes.body
I like this statue because they used a red shell for his eyes and I think that's unique.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
A male head with the conventional image of a Mexica man depicted with strong features, big and well delineated ears, lightly aquiline nose and a very marked hairline. The piece has a spike in the neck to be fixed probably in the body of a complete figure. The cavity of the eyes is filled with a red shell (Spondylus princeps) inlay whose color has made think some researchers it indicates the representation of a man poisoned with pulque [Mexican alcoholic drink made from fermented maguey juice] or with some psychotropic plant in some sacrificial ceremony before immolating the victim. It has six teeth of white shell and the pupils are of made of pyrite. It was found together with another almost identical head in a 1940 excavation near the corner of Francisco I. Madero and Bolivar in the Historic Center of Mexico City.Arqlga. Bertina Olmedo Vera

Explore museums and play with Art Transfer, Pocket Galleries, Art Selfie, and more

Recommended

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Cabeza de Hombre - unknown - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A male head with the conventional image of a Mexica man depicted with strong features, big and well delineated ears, lightly aquiline nose and a very marked hairline. The piece has a spike in the neck to be fixed probably in the body of a complete figure.

# data[].attributes.body
I like both the subject and message of this sculpture, which depicts a young girl competing in a race—a rarity at the time.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
In the Greek world it was very unusual for women to take part in sport, and so a depiction of a girl competing in a running race is rare. The appearance of this young woman corresponds well with an ancient description of the girls who ran in the Heraia, the games held in honour of Hera at Olympia. These games were separate from the Olympics, which were staged in honour of Zeus, and held at a different time of year. They consisted solely of a sprint, with three heats for girls of different ages. Women

Explore museums and play with Art Transfer, Pocket Galleries, Art Selfie, and more

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Bronze figure of a running girl - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In the Greek world it was very unusual for women to take part in sport, and so a depiction of a girl competing in a running race is rare. The appearance of this young woman corresponds well with an ancient description of the girls who ran in the Heraia, the games held in honour of Hera at Olympia.

# data[].attributes.body
I really like how abstract this sculpture looks, and how its put up to look like it's flying. Another thing would be how geometric all the colors look.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Taking a Lesson from the Past -B - Boy - Kang, Yong Meon - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The image of B-boy is expressive of the artist's wish to aim and reach high.

# data[].attributes.headline
Head of Aphrodite ("The Bartlett Head" )Unknown (about 330 B.C. - 300 B.C)

# data[].attributes.subject
Head of Aphrodite ("The Bartlett Head" )Unknown (about 330 B.C. - 300 B.C)

# data[].attributes.body
I've always liked Greek myth and when I saw this sculpture I instantly knew it was Aphrodite.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Close to the style of Praxiteles, this head is a rare original example of the major late Classical sculpture known mostly from Roman copies. Since the neck is worked for insertion, it must have been set in a draped statue. A ribbon circles the goddess' head twice, and loops of hair are pulled up from under it to create the popular hairstyle of the time known as lampadion or "little torch."

Explore museums and play with Art Transfer, Pocket Galleries, Art Selfie, and more

Recommended

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Head of Aphrodite ("The Bartlett Head" ) - Unknown - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Close to the style of Praxiteles, this head is a rare original example of the major late Classical sculpture known mostly from Roman copies. Since the neck is worked for insertion, it must have been set in a draped statue.

# data[].attributes.headline
Sant'Anna Metterza, French-provincial artist (End of 15th Century)

# data[].attributes.subject
Sant'Anna Metterza, French-provincial artist (End of 15th Century)

# data[].attributes.body
I love how the statue represents the love that joins them. It's very detailed considering how it was made in wood in the 15th-16th century and still didn't rot.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Wooden sculpture representing the Virgin and the Child with Saint Anne; it is also called "Sant'Anna Metterza". The two children pose their hands on Saint Anne's heart, as a symbol of the love which joins them.

Explore museums and play with Art Transfer, Pocket Galleries, Art Selfie, and more

Recommended

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Sant'Anna Metterza - French-provincial artist - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Wooden sculpture representing the Virgin and the Child with Saint Anne; it is also called "Sant'Anna Metterza". The two children pose their hands on Saint Anne's heart, as a symbol of the love which joins them. Explore museums and play with Art Transfer, Pocket Galleries, Art Selfie, and more Recommended

# data[].attributes.body
I really like the road signs used in the sculpture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
" Trans Canada Hutch... is an effecting paean to athlete Terry Fox. Having covered 5,373 kilometers in 143 days, Fox ended his run to raise awareness and funds to cure cancer on 1 September 1980, just outside of Thunder Bay. Made out of simulated highway signs from northern Ontario (with their signature rounded corners, green backgrounds and white lettering) Coupland's oblong box serves as a base for a replica of Fox's left leg which was accidentally mirrored in a CAD program and subsequantly milled out of foam. A consequence of a computer error, the perfect inverted copy of Fox's leg is an unexpected, unsettling, but ultimately magical, object. Reminiscent of a fragment of an ancient Greek sculpture of some fallen hero, Coupland's inclusion of the computer modelled copy of the runner's healthy limb in the Trans Canada Hutch raises the termporally challenging speculation that Fox would most likely have survived his illness with the advances in cancer research made possible through the monies he raised in his 'Marathon of Hope'." -excerpt from Michael Prokopow's essay, "Coupland's True North Strong and Free," included in the catalogue that accompanied the exhibition Douglas Coupland: everywhere is anywhere is anything is everything, published in 2014 by Black Dog Publishing and the Vancouver Art Gallery.

Through a wide range of media including assemblage, installation, painting, photography, sculpture and quilts, Coupland has persistently investigated Canadian cultural identity, both benign and menacing. Using imagery and objects latent with symbolic meaning for Canadians, he delineates what it means to be Canadian, offering a "secret handshake" not easily understood by others.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Trans Canada Hutch - Douglas Coupland - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
" Trans Canada Hutch... is an effecting paean to athlete Terry Fox. Having covered 5,373 kilometers in 143 days, Fox ended his run to raise awareness and funds to cure cancer on 1 September 1980, just outside of Thunder Bay.

# data[].attributes.headline
Royal Blue Mint Chandelier Dale Chihuly 1998

# data[].attributes.subject
Royal Blue Mint Chandelier Dale Chihuly 1998

# data[].attributes.body
I love the differing lines of this sculpture. They make it look soft and furry.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Royal Blue Mint Chandelier - Chihuly, Dale Patrick - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Google Arts & Culture features content from over 2000 leading museums and archives who have partnered with the Google Cultural Institute to bring the world's treasures online.

# data[].attributes.body
I enjoy the shapes of this sculpture and the shadows that it cast. It gets me the feeling that everything is in motion.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Between the 1920s and '30s, Calder regularly made long study and work trips to Paris, where he began to participate in the Abstraction-Création group. Finally, in 1932, at the Galleria Vignon - owned by Marie Cuttolì, an avant-garde collector - he exhibited for the first time, presenting thirty mobile works that were to pave the way for other mobiles to come. Fifteen of these were operated artificially by motors and others were composed of naturally oscillating parts. Later constructions often had supports or were suspended in the air, and were normally composed of painted metal sheets joined by a metal skeleton of slender veins and stems. Apparently it was Marcel Duchamp, on a visit to the exhibition by his American friend, who gave their name to these graceful, floating structures, which could catch the slightest change in the breeze, in stark contrast to the basic characteristics of traditional sculpture - gravity and stability. The Parisian context and close interest of the avant-guard led to the mechanical and biomorphic nature of these works being associated with the organic motifs of the surrealist painting and sculpture of Jean Mirò and Jean Arp. The Dadaist legacy of interest in movement, better still if unpredictable and casual in its effects and forms, which Calder combined with a preference for abstract and heavily stylised language, was stimulated by attention towards primitive cultures, which for the artist essentially meant the ethnic heritage of Native Americans, encountered while wandering around the United States in his youth. These influences spawned abstract anatomies, like this large Red Mobile, always in movement with a calculated balance, aimed at creating a visual equivalent of the harmonious yet unpredictable activity of nature.

Explore museums and play with Art Transfer, Pocket Galleries, Art Selfie, and more

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Red Mobile - Alexander Calder - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Between the 1920s and '30s, Calder regularly made long study and work trips to Paris, where he began to participate in the Abstraction-Création group. Fina...

# data[].attributes.headline
Bronze Statuette of a Cat7th and 6th centuries B.C.

# data[].attributes.subject
Bronze Statuette of a Cat7th and 6th centuries B.C.

# data[].attributes.body
I love the form of the cat. It expression is one of kitty that probably was up to mischief.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
According to the ancient Egyptians the gods could express either their destructive or their benevolent side to mortals. The ferality and playfulness typical of felines was expressed on the one hand by the unbridled ferocity and bloodthirstiness of the lioness (Sakhmet/Tefnut), and on the other by the benevolent effect of the cat goddess Bastet, placing emphasis on her domesticated and supple nature.
Both aspects of the goddess are closely linked to the sun-god and solar concepts. According to the Myth of the Solar Eye she is the daughter of the god, (actually personifying the divine Solar Eye) who according to myth in a fit of anger transformed herself into the shape of a lioness (or a wild cat), and strayed into the remote South. The sun-god dispatched the baboon-shaped Thot in pursuit of her and he managed to bring her back in a domesticated and pacified cat form. The head of this statuette is carved with a scarab beetle (the rising form of the sun-god), referring to the animal's link with the sun-god. The eyes are inlaid in gold. One of the rock crystal pupils decorating the eyes has been lost.
During the first millennium BC the main religious centre of the goddess Bastet venerated in cat form was the town of Bubastis in the Eastern Delta. Herodotus gives a vivid account of the fertility ceremonies performed there. Hundreds of statuettes like this, obviously intended to represent the cult image of the temple, were presented as votive offerings to the goddess.

Éva Liptay

Explore museums and play with Art Transfer, Pocket Galleries, Art Selfie, and more

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Bronze Statuette of a Cat - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
According to the ancient Egyptians the gods could express either their destructive or their benevolent side to mortals. The ferality and playfulness typica...

# data[].attributes.headline
Mantle Clock. Classicism. France (Unknown 19th century)

# data[].attributes.subject
Mantle Clock. Classicism. France (Unknown 19th century)

# data[].attributes.body
The form that this clock was constructed in is what i enjoy about the piece because it has a practical use while also being a piece of art it adds more value in my opinion.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
This is a bronze mantel clock with a pendulum and
bell. The clock's bronze mount, held atop six bun-shaped feet, is placed on an
oval wooden base. The front is decorated with attached bronze ornaments: cupids
flying on winged Pegasus-like horses. Neptune's head is between them, atop
crossed torches. The clock's mechanism is mounted within a flat, bronze,
blackened vase that grows wider at the top, which is standing on the
mount. At the top of the vase, on a
shell drawn by two birds, there is a seated Diana. At its base, the vase is
decorated with two winged dolphins, and at the sides - heads of Neptune from
which water flows down into basins below. The Roman numerals (I-XII) marking
the hours and the minute sections are drawn onto the white enamel coated clock
face, which is surrounded by a bronze border. The numbers "9548" have been
etched into the pendulum and the mechanism.

Explore museums and play with Art Transfer, Pocket Galleries, Art Selfie, and more

Recommended

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Mantel clock. Classicism. France - Unknown - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This is a bronze mantel clock with a pendulum andbell. The clock's bronze mount, held atop six bun-shaped feet, is placed on anoval wooden base. The front is decorated with attached bronze ornaments: cupidsflying on winged Pegasus-like horses. Neptune's head is between them, atopcrossed torches.

# data[].attributes.body
I like these sculptures because they also look scary. They have no heads which makes me curious on if that is just the design, or if the were removed.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Figures - Magdalena Abakanowicz - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Google Arts & Culture features content from over 2000 leading museums and archives who have partnered with the Google Cultural Institute to bring the world's treasures online.