Existing comment:
American Origins
In the age of iron and steel, sculpture shared in the dynamism of American industry. Gilded Age sculpture turned from a backwards-looking neoclassicism to create an art form that fulfilled the ideals of making it new and making it real. Through the detail of modern metalwork, sculpture heightened the realism of a portrait.
Sculpture was civic art. It ornamented the parks that were being built in the midst of cities and contributed to a new ideal of public improvement. Sculpture was both aesthetically pleasing and a celebration of notable men and their heroic deeds. Statues and busts of the founding generation were always popular, and there was a public demand to commemorate the heroes of the Civil War. This heroicizing of both the past and the present was symbolic of a country growing confident in its abilities and emerging as a world power. |