Small-scale sculpture. Legacy

 

«Sculpture is the art of mind.».

Pablo Picasso

 

In recent years, people's interest in aesthetic understanding of the phenomena of both classical artistic heritage and contemporary art, in the education of taste and the correct understanding of beauty has greatly revived. This interest has especially increased in recent years due to lively discussions around the problems of contemporary art, its features, its achievements and individual shortcomings. A special place in this process is given to small-scale plastic art.

Genres and directions of small-scale sculpture are extremely multifaceted and affect almost all areas of human life. The art of stone carving has retained its traditions in our century as well.

Artisans of the German school – Eberhard Bank, the Dreher dynasty (Karl, Hermann, Paul, Gerd, Patrick), Manfred Wild and few others – rise above the modern stone-cutters.

 

 

Manfred Wild – stone artist, jeweler. He was born in 1944 in the town of Kirschweiler near the town of Idar-Oberstein (Germany). Manfred wild is the eighth representative of the family dynasty, which has been working in the field of artistic processing of stones and precious minerals since 1630.

 

Mirage Egg. Manfred Wild. 2014. Estimated at £5 mln.

 

The one, who grown up in a creative environment, Manfred was fond of drawing since his childhood. So he graduated the college of arts and commerce, in addition to the educational school. Wilde's workshop was initially specialized in creating copies of famous works, and then completely switched to the production of authorial products.

 

Manfred Wild.

 

Manfred Wild is sometimes called the "Faberge of the XXI century". And there is every reason for this honorable comparison. He managed not only to master the virtuoso technique of processing stones and metal, but also to create his own recognizable style, carefully interpreting the best techniques of great artisans of the past.

 

Japanese plum flowers (ume) Opal, rhodochrosite, obsidian, gold. 35.6x25.4x24.1 cm | Flowering branch of Apple. Opal, agate, citrine, silver. 17x10x10 cm | Manfred Wild.

 

Modern small-scale plastic art is designed to overcome the monotony of the mainstream commonplace interior, to give some personality thereto. Most of the modern small-scale pieces of plastic art created by sculptors are exclusive.

 

Gerd Dreher.

 

Many connoisseurs of stone-cutting art consider Gerd Dreher one of the world's best stone carvers. Gerd Dreher, the fourth in the dynasty of German stonecutters from Idar-Oberstein and, today, the most famous one.

 

Gerd Dreher.

 

Miniature sculptures of animals, which won the fame for eminent artisan, were made most often of various sorts of quartz and beryl, but the most favorite for him is agate from the deposit of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil. Gerd Dreher's works are world-renowned and are stored in many collections.

 

Gerd Dreher.

 

Gerd studied stone-cutting art from his father Paul. Paul managed to achieve such a level of quality of images of animals made on the basis of his own ideas and sketches that two of his works were included in the famous book about Fabergé, published in 1962 in London, in which they were positioned as fully consistent with the design of this brand.

 

Gerd Dreher.

 

A Lion. Paul Dreher. Tiger's eye, chalcedony, rhodochrosite, diamonds; carving, polishing. The length – 17.8 cm. A roaring lion made of polished tiger's eye, whose color and structure perfectly convey the silky skin of a predator, teeth of white chalcedony, tongue and palate of rhodochrosite, eyes of small diamonds.

 

Flying Duck. Paul Dreher. Jasper, agate, tiger's and falcon's eye, chalcedony; carving, polishing. The length – 22.8 cm. The composition is made in the shape of a duck flying over the water. The body of the duck is made of brown, mottled jasper, the wings are of blue chalcedony and falcon's eye, the neck is of tiger's eye, tail and legs are of yellow jasper. The base of the gray translucent agate is made in the shape of water ripples.

 

Falcon. Eberhard Bank.
Aquamarine, lapis lazuli, rhinestone, gold.
The height of the Falcon is 290 mm.

 

Stone-carving sculpture of Falcon, beautifully created by Eberhard Bank, is unique. A single piece of aquamarine weighing 37,000 carats was used for the Falcon figurine. The branch, on which the sculpture is fixed, is made of silver and weighs 14.7 kilograms.

 

Falcon. Luis Alberto Quispe Aparicio. Amethyst, quartz, obsidian, garnets, gold. Height: 21.5 cm.

 

Luis Alberto Quispe Aparicio from Peru, the founder of the L'Aquart creative studio, one of the most successful and popular stonecutters of modernity. He was born in a family of jewelers and since childhood was keen on stone-cutting art. He created his first work at the age of six. It was a tree of hollow malachite with black fused crystals and a trunk of tiger's eye. The beauty of the resulting product was for Luis Alberto such a "personal" thing that this item is still kept in his private collection.

 

"Parrot on the Branch." Luis Alberto Quispe Aparicio. Ruby, tourmaline, opal, onyx, gold. Height – 27.9 cm. The parrot is made of an opaque Tanzanian ruby weighing about 2,640 carats, with eyes of pink tourmaline and golden legs, sits on a branch of a bizarre shape of pink Andean opal with untreated rock at the edges. Oval onyx base.

 

He notes that the gemstones most attractive for him have a rich color, a certain texture and unique defects. They are the main component of the design and give the products a special character. Specialists of the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) in Carlsbad, California note that the combination of natural stones, special methods of carving and working with precious metals allowed the artisan to show how the colors and textures of various minerals "come to life".

 

Parrots. Luis Alberto Quispe Aparicio. Anyolite, tiger's eye, wood. The height – 50.8 cm. Parrots are made of a single piece of Tanzanian anyolite (green zoisite with inclusions of ruby), with the large beaks of tiger's eye. The base is made of petrified wood.

 

A special topic in the works of Luis Alberto were sculptures of skulls, each of which carries a special mood and is made of a single piece of natural stone. Being a popular symbol in jewelry, many people associate the skull with danger or death; in his hands, it has acquired a special character due to the exceptional details.

 

The Skull. Luis Alberto Quispe Aparicio. Amethyst, quartz, gold; carving, polishing. The height – 21 cm. The diameter of the base is 20 cm.

 

This Skull is on Fire. Luis Alberto Quispe Aparicio. Rock crystal, obsidian, gold. 17х16х25 cm.

 

Authorial works are mostly solitary, and so the unique works of art are born. This uniqueness intrinsic to the authorial sculpture is especially attractive due to the wide possibilities of improvisation and experiment, the relationship of masses and textures. The finest work, amazing combinations of materials and as if reviving compositions immediately rivet the eye.

 

Penguin Family by Peter Mueller. Agate, quartz, rhinestone; Height – 22.8 cm.

 

Alfred Zimmerman, one of the most famous stonecutters of the last few decades, belongs to the community of gem grinders of the city of Idar-Oberstein.

 

Seated Monkey. Alfred Zimmerman. Agate. The height – 7.6 cm. The monkey is made of a single piece of translucent gray agate, with unusual tints, from dark gray on the back, to light gray on the legs and muzzle, which gives a special realism to the figurine.

 

Alfred Zimmerman, a disciple of Gerd Dreher, a fourth-generation stonecutter, is known for his works in the style of Fabergé. The main themes of his works are animal sculptures made of transparent crystalline minerals.

 

Bear on a Log. Alfred Zimmerman. Citrine, sapphires. Size 19x7.6x7.6 cm. The composition is made of a single crystal of high-quality transparent citrine. It depicts a European brown bear resting on a log with the eyes made of cabochon sapphires.

 

The Skating Mouse. Alfred Zimmerman. Agate, aquamarine, sapphires, 18K gold. The length – 10 cm.

 

A psychological connection between the author and the viewer is created, there is a feeling that the work is done for the one who carefully examines it, that talent and skill of the artist are directed to his eyes, his soul, his intelligence. It is when the viewer's attention freely flows around the external contours of the work on the one hand, and clings to the traps of voids and gaps between the volumes, generates a complex "game" attracting and hypnotizing the viewer on the other.

Among the Russian stonecutters, Sergey Shimansky and Sergey Falkin, unsurpassed artisans from St. Petersburg, deserve special attention.

Sergei Shimansky is an artisan with a rare artistic flair. Any of his work is always an experiment.

 

Golden Childhood. Sergei Shimansky.

 

In the works of Sergei Falkin, there is always an understanding of the importance of tradition, but there is an understanding that we live in a different world, in a different reality and the path of imitation of the art of the past cannot bring us to new discoveries.

 

Spring Has Come by Sergey Falkin.

 

The main message of this work is in the life-affirming mood of the spring. Joyful anticipation and carelessness are read in the raised head and tail of the bull. After reading the title of the work, you may wonder: why the main character is the bull after the authorial idea? In the zodiac meaning, the bull is a solar symbol, a sign of the spring and rebirth of life. Color transitions of jade give some naturalness to the image. A kind of reminder is enclosed on this bull: do not forget to feel life in every moment.

 

Minus 60. Sergey Falkin.

 

When processing the stone, the main task of artists and stone carvers of Lobortas is to emphasize the beauty of the material and to identify its individual artistic expression. The embodiment of these qualities in a work of art is through thoughtful composition, the use of surface texture of the material, pattern, color and special optical effects, as well as technical means of stone processing.

 

«Sea of Galilee».Sculpture."Lobortas" House.
Photo by Vladislav Filin.

 

The artistic idea and artistic image of the future work often prompt the artisans of the inherent properties of the material. The variety of color of the stone, change its color depending on the lighting and surface treatment, the manifestation of additional hidden effects in its depths – all this contributes to the creation of highly artistic images.