William Zorach conceived a sculpture entitled “Victory” that shows an indebtedness to the late classical fourth century B. C. idealized images of Venus, combined with a figural attitude of flight that is perhaps derived from the twisting torso of the conceptions of flight in the winged Victory of Samothrace. The figure exhibits a lustrous surface of sensual light that is reminiscent of the finish on Donatello’s bronze image of David. The torso may be viewed at once as a provacative and modern heroic image of the feminine grace of womanhood.
Two Lines oblique Down, Variation H” by George Ricky was conceived with a concern for the problems of space and time wherein there is a constant transformation of natural forces of Nature. The spatial configurations that are produced by the action of linear triangular points that pivot on the principle of lever action that was first discovered by the Greek mathematician Archimedes 287-212 B. C.. The reference to this progenitor, the symmetrical geometry, and concern for change are all modern expressions of classicism.
Francisco Zuniga conceived “Desmudo Reclinado”, a sculptural image of a crouching woman that at once expresses a classical monumentality and a humble dignity. The artist has produced an heroic image of the enduring peasant, reminiscent of Jean Francois Millet’s mid-ninteenth century conceptualizations of peasants presented with a Michael-Angelesque grandeur. Jacques Lipschitz conceived of a bathing figure by analyzing her in terms of concave and convex geometric shapes that form and abstract ordered interplay that results in the creation of a new conceptual reality.
The figure is an example of classicism in the modern cubist movement. David Smith created “Cubi XX”, an open sculpture of geometric shapes that are precariously balanced upon each other. This image is comparable to the projection of the modern cubist paintings projected into the third dimension. When view from certain angles one can see an obvious religious influence in the form of an perfectly proportioned cross.
By using the medium of stainless steel, Smith has achieved the impact of bringing the traditional opinions and philosophies of the past to focus in the present, thereby displaying the belief that truth and honesty are values that never lose their luster. I find that I am most attracted to a work of art by the amount of planning I project it took to create. I am also impressed by how accurately an artist is able to make his or her projection into reality of an idea resemble what they have in their mind. This is why I prefer strict geometrical shapes and mathematically perfect images to some of the more “free form” representations.
