Color in Sculpture
Color incorporated into sculpture is not so unusual especially in modern art but its formal demands differ from working with color in painting. Since color is applied or becomes part of a three-dimensional form varied considerations come into play and different visual effects can be made. These two sculptors represent some of these possibilities and were able to demonstrate visually to my students some of those effects. After a short discussion about what was the same and what was different in these two images, my students had these close observations when I asked the question: "Where do you see color?
Color was on the front and on the side.
Color was not the same in similar forms.
Color was the same on all the sides that they could see.
Color was not the same on the different sides that they could see.
Some of the same color was repeated on different forms.
The base was colored.
The whole sculpture was colored.
I asked them to give me some ideas of what plans they might have when we start painting our sculptures. Some said they wanted to paint the front different from the back, others said they wanted to paint different colors on different forms. A few mentioned they wanted to paint the front and side and back the same color.
"OK", I said " we shall start then painting in the round".
