MetaFilter posts tagged with sculpture and history

The Visual Arts Data Service

paduasoy — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 19:56:10 -0800

VADS is a resource for visual art, a huge range of things from students' work to collections of historical art and design. I particularly liked the Bookbinders's Women's Suffrage banner and the Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture

Coptic Book Art

homunculus — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 15:00:19 -0800

Daniel Essig creates wooden-covered art books and book-based sculptures. "Using a fourth-century binding style known as Ethiopian style Coptic, he creates mixed-media book structures that incorporate unusual woods, handmade paper, found objects, fossils, and mica. He lives in Asheville, North Carolina, where he has a studio at the Grovewood Gallery." [Via MonkeyFilter, which has links to other book artists.]

The Explorer from Jamestown's only got one arm!

LarryC — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 09:55:46 -0800

A heroic sculpture of explorer Christopher Newport recently unveiled at the university of the same name is drawing criticism because of the decision of the university and the sculptor to depict Newport with his right hand manfully resting on his unsheathed sword--even though he lost that arm two decades before the founding of Virginia. Sculptor Jon Hair ("AMERICA'S MOST HIGHLY COMMISSIONED MONUMENTAL SCULPTOR" according his website) isn't winning any friends with his explanation of the blunder. "I wouldn't show an important historical figure like this with his arm cut off . . . We don't show our heroes maimed." The irony is that Hair could have avoided what was surely an unintentional screwup with as little research as a visit to the Christopher Newport Wikipedia page, which features an illustration of the hook-armed explorer.

newly translated interview with prominent WW II German Sculptor

Rumple — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 13:02:48 -0800

The Monumental is My Sickness: a newly translated 1979 interview with German sculptor Arno Breker. Extremely revealing about art, memory, Nazism, and the troubling life story of "Hitler's Favourite Sculptor". For context, read this critical review of a recent exhibition of Breker's work. More Arno Breker resources, including many photos: (in French); the museum of Arno Breker (in German); Wikipedia entry. via

Hero stones

dhruva — Mon, 14 Mar 2005 23:01:29 -0800

Hero stones are carved stones (found all over India) erected in the honor of a brave man or woman who perished while defending the interests of the village. Image search.

'Goyle and Trouble

nthdegx — Tue, 15 Jul 2003 05:27:03 -0800

The monstrous fauna of the cathedrals... although less polished than the prev. mentioned A Love of Monsters, this collection of gargoyle photographs - largely from British churches - more than makes amends with its enthusiasm for its subject.

skallas — Thu, 21 Feb 2002 19:05:03 -0800

Petition to return the Parthenon (Elgin) Marbles to Greece. Nice background on the marbles here. Cliffnotes version here.