Be a Sculpture Critic

In Be a Sculpture Critic section, learn how to critique sculptures by learning the elements of design and principles of design. Also learn how to compare and contrast sculptures.

After you have learned how to critique, select a sculpture and record your answers to the Write About It questions in a notebook or a digital document. Use the Sculpture Word Bank to help with your responses.

Google Drive/Classroom Users: You can go under File and select "Make a Copy" or "Print" to access the Artopia Sculpture - Write About It worksheet.

Google Docs Worksheet

Sculpture - Write About It Worksheet for Google Docs

Interactive

Grades: 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

INSTRUCTIONS: Click on the link above to access the Google Docs document. You can go under File and select " Make a Copy" to add to your own Google Drive or " Print." In Be a Sculpture Critic, select...

Sculpture Word Bank | Artopia

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Grades: 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

WORD BANK: Elements and Principles of Design line – a long thin continuous mark or stroke color – hues, tints, and shades as created by light and pigments value – the relative lightness or darkness of...

Modeling - Octet 2 Blue | Artopia

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Grades: 6 7 8

Roseline Delisle A Closer Look Octet 2 Blue is an abstract form, but it could almost be a twirling dancer in a billowing skirt. Roseline Delisle calls her sculptures "humanistic." She imagines that...

Modeling - Up Against It | Artopia

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Grades: 6 7 8

Robert Arneson A Closer Look What do you like about Robert Arneson's Up Against It? Is it the texture that defines the balding man or is it his expression? Notice how the details in this ceramic...

Modeling - Lola | Artopia

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Grades: 6 7 8

Georgia Blizzard A Closer Look Form is a primary consideration in Georgia Blizzard's ceramic artwork Lola. Look at the rounded figure of this woman. Every feature of her body is voluminous. While the...

Modeling - Head, Falasha Artist, Axum Ethiopia | Artopia

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Grades: 6 7 8

Anonymous A Closer Look You might wonder what this man is thinking. His expression is ambiguous. Does he seems sad, worried, or do his lips indicate some sort of pleasurable thought? Only the artist...

Modeling - Bust of Warrior | Artopia

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Grades: 6 7 8

Anonymous A Closer Look What elements of design do you think about when you look at Bust of a Warrior? What shapes do you see? Can you see how the artist has turned flat shapes into forms? The two...

Site Specific Art - Taratantara | Artopia

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Grades: 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Anish Kapoor A Closer Look Look at the enormous bright red form that Anish Kapoor has built! Form is the three dimensional representation of an object. Notice the sleek form of Kapoor's artwork. It...

Site-Specific Art - Spoonbridge and Cherry | Artopia

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Grades: 6 7 8

Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen A Closer Look Spoonbridge and Cherry is an excellent example of proportion in sculpture. It is a gigantic version of a spoon that you would use to eat an ice...

Installation Art - Lap Pool | Artopia

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Grades: 6 7 8

Dale Chihuly A Closer Look Can you imagine swimming in a lighted sculpture of colorful glass? Look at the richness of the colors as the swimmer floats over the glass forms. It's as though she is at...

Earthworks - Spiral Jetty | Artopia

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Grades: 6 7 8

Robert Smithson A Closer Look The movement of Spiral Jetty takes off from the shoreline to the center of the spiral. Smithson used black rock and earth to make this piece. The consistency of the...

Ephemeral Art - Icicle Star | Artopia

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Grades: 6 7 8

Andy Goldsworthy A Closer Look Look at the beautiful form Andy Goldsworthy has created using icicles. What an unusual material! It looks just like its name, Icicle Star. Each icicle is a straight line...

Casting - Reversed Double Helix | Artopia

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Grades: 6 7 8

Takashi Murakami A Closer Look The double helix is the structure of the DNA molecule, a twisted ladder-like stack of building blocks called nucleotides. Our DNA makes us who we are. Why do you think...

Casting - Queenie II | Artopia

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Grades: 6 7 8

Duane Hanson A Closer Look Queenie II was in an exhibit once at the Nevada Museum of Art. The night before the show opened a false fire alarm went off. When the firefighters arrived they were...

Casting - The Bronco Buster | Artopia

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Grades: 6 7 8

Frederic Remington A Closer Look Look at the movement in The Bronco Buster. It seems to jump right out of the metal cast. The horse rears up on its hind legs, pushing the cowboy into the air...

Casting - Spider | Artopia

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Grades: 6 7 8

Louise Bourgeois A Closer Look Line is one of the main elements of design in Spider. Look how the lines lead up from the ground to the body of the spider. This is such a simple sculpture, yet its...

Casting - Monument to Balzac | Artopia

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Grades: 6 7 8

Auguste Rodin A Closer Look What expression has Auguste Rodin given his Monument to Balzac? What does it tell you about the writer? Rodin was an Impressionist, interested in how light affected an...

Carving - Peplos Kore (Peplophoros) | Artopia

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Grades: 6 7 8

Anonymous A Closer Look Artworks made during a particular time and place often look similar to one another. We call them "stylized." Many artworks from the Archaic Period of ancient Greece resemble...

Carving - Slave Called Atlas | Artopia

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Grades: 6 7 8

Michelangelo A Closer Look Do you think this sculpture by Michelangelo is finished...or is the artist making a statement about slavery? What do you think he would be trying to say? There is a strong...

Carving - Moses (after Michelangelo) | Artopia

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Grades: 6 7 8

Edmonia Lewis A Closer Look We often hear that copying is wrong, but a good way to study techniques of art is to imitate the works of other artists. 400 years after Michelangelo, Edmonia Lewis lived...

Carving - Kouros | Artopia

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Grades: 6 7 8

Isamu Noguchi A Closer Look Do you think this sculpture could be considered stylized? Do you notice a resemblance between it and another in our collection? Noguchi simplified the parts of the body and...

Carving - Harlow Family Group | Artopia

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Grades: 6 7 8

Henry Moore A Closer Look Henry Moore’s work is organic, meaning that it flows and has a lot of curvy lines. Look at the outline of this sculpture. See how the spaces between and around the sculpture...

Assemblage - Cubi XII | Artopia

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Grades: 6 7 8

David Smith A Closer Look Cubi XII has straight lines and angles, making it an excellent example of geometric three-dimensional form. It balances without falling over even though the form is not the...

Assemblage - Untitled #857 | Artopia

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Grades: 6 7 8

Petah Coyne A Closer Look Untitled #857 is heavily textured. The ribbons covered with wax and little white birds make the work look like a lighted chandelier hanging from the ceiling. How does this...