Casting: A survey of cast metal sculpture in the 80's : July 8-August 28, 1982

From Introduction: "From ancient Egypt to the present, bronze casting has had a continuous history if one remembers the great traditions of Asia as well as the West. Then and now bronze has signified permanence and faithful reproduction of the impermanent. Until after the Renaissance, cast bronze was left in its natural state. Bronze patination became customary practice by the early 19th century with black, brown, green and sometimes blue patinas being used cosmetically to mask the scars of casting and chasing. Except for Barye, 19th century sculptors such as Rodin left the casting and finishing process to artisans. Too often forgotten is that for the first fifty years of this century bronze was the material most used by the major modern sculptors. Brancusi invented the high polished surface, and Archipenko invented polychromed patinas. Picasso painted an edition of bronzes in 1914. Gaudier Brzeska and Gonzalez carved small solid bronzes. Matisse, Maillol, Lipchitz, Giacometti and Henry Moore produced much of their best work in bronze before 1950. Bronze editions encouraged their world renown. In America as well as in Europe, bronze sculpture has survived the challenges of abstraction and constructivism, direct carving and welding, assemblage and earthworks. In the past decade inspired by more and venturesome foundries, artists previously uninvolved with bronze, such as Nancy Graves, have discovered its strength in supporting aerial configurations and the otherwise unstable. Paint as well as patination applied to bronze attracts painters as well as sculptors such as Manuel Neri. It is a noble but also democratic material that faithfully reproduces the modeled and carved, the intimately yet impersonally formed."--Albert Elsen