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Julie Amrany MFA Art Institute of Boston Faculty Advisor (Michael Newman Group 1) Comparative Analysis Paper September 28, 2011

Blocks of Gesture The figure has always been the vehicle through which I express my art. Figure sculpting is a passion of mine; I was attracted to both Camille Claudel's and Antony Gormley's sculpture for this reason. Captivating in style, both Claudel and Gormley draw you in like a magnet to their self embracing figures. We will be looking at Camille Claudel's 'The Leaning Man' 1885 and Antony Gormley's 'Clutch' 2007. Both are similar in gesture, yet very different in style. It is well known that they are considered progressive artists of their time. I propose to prove that both Claudel and Gormley convey tension and a sense of interior space in the absence of high realism within these two sculptures. Camille Claudel is coming from a classical background in the late 1800's in figurative sculpture. She sculpted in a mimetic fashion though she adhered to the modern movement of the Impressionists."Camille must have thought on these subjects heavily to produce such mature, ethereal ,and ingenious works for her young age." (Koenigmann 2). She was able to capture her model in a fleeting moment of passion and solace. The muscle tension in the body reflects gripping emotion and sadness. Yet the detail is not present in the face and the hands.. The refinement was not necessary to her. She already captured the essence of the figure. " Like Rodin, Camille Claudel

attacks the front: she goes straight to the essence without waisting time on superfluous details" (Paris169). She uses organic materials in her own soft expression of form; and she uses what was at her disposal at the time. The classicists used clay, plaster, marble and bronze. This sculpture is a plaster cast made from an original clay sculpture ,it also exists in bronze. Claudel was forthright about her process, whether using clay or stone, the additive or the subtractive process. The materials she uses are natural elements from the earth. Claudel like other artists was influenced by her environment, the era in which she lived, and the people such as mentors and other artists they studied with and or admired. She studied from a young age with an artist by the name of Alfred Boucher at the Colarossi Academy in 1884. At that time the Beaux Arts rejected women, so they had to seek out private mentors. When Boucher decided to move to Italy to further his own career, he introduced her to Rodin. In time she became his student, muse, lover, and friend. She adopted Rodin's style of Impressionism and imprinted her own poetic impression in her work. In this particular sculpture of 'Man Leaning', it shows her concern with gesture, emotion, tension, yet a form of solace. She takes us inside the figure. "The surfaces of a Camille Claudels like those of Rodin are a tactile pleasure. The shape is the result of constantly renewed gestures"(Paris 169). We as artists reflect our society at large, and the times in which we live. We sift and interpret information, aesthetics, and invention. An artist that stands above others creates pieces which have never been done before. Claudel had the inherent ability to

render figures in clay which are alive with feeling, are self reflective,and appear to be tortured. She revealed the human predicament without the use of detail . "The object modeled is the result of a muscular energy; while that muscular energy in turn is the result of a perturbations of the soul; therein lies the ultimate secret of the works of Camille Claudel- works on an instant to petrify the moment" (Paris175). We are encapsulated within our skins sometimes unwillingly. Her pieces emanate passion, love,tension,deep thought and a certain self awareness. She was a tortured soul; she spent the last 30 years of her life in an asylum. Unlike Claudel, Gormley is a well adjusted and widely acclaimed artist of his time. He uses the figure in a more conceptual approach. He creates the body by molding it from the outside, then uses techniques to fill in the interior as it is in'Clutch. He records himself by encapsulating his body in a mold. He uses in this piece architectural lines and forms to create a modern self clutching figure."There is an internal relationship of the blocks that creates the tension in the works" (Anna Schwartz Gallery1). His geometric lines create opposition to the organic form of the body. " Some assume precarious stances where the sharp metal clarity of the steel blocks is countered by a sense of vulnerability and exposure"(1). Gormley himself comments: " The sculptures are in some way an attempt to realize embodiment, without really worrying too much about mimesis, representation in a traditional way"(Hutchinson10). A figurative sculptor in the non-traditional sense, he uses materials that sculptors have used over the centuries, such as iron, bronze, clay, plaster and now steel. Today he utilizes computers and modern day mathematics as well to create fractal

monumental size sculptures. He gravitates to the idea that his work will eventually be recycled back into the earth. Gormley's studies consisted of subjects such as archeology, anthropology and history of art at Trinity College in London, England. He was also influenced by his travels in India, and Sri Lanka; between1971-1974 he learned about Buddhism. He went on to study sculpture at the Shade School of Art University College London between 1977 and 1979. Gormley is also reacting to the movements of art during his youth. "being part of the generation that grew up with minimalism, his thought as already noted has certain parallels in the phenomenology that was influential in the 1960s and the 1970s" (44). He was also taken with Jacob Ebstein's work, Ebstein rejected the Modernist Abstraction approach and brought back the more human values into art of his time. Gormley's pieces express deep thought and self awareness, a potential for most humans. "When Antony speaks about his work as an attempt to materialize uncertainty and isolate some point of contact between consciousness and matter, and he alludes to the dispersion of self through awareness,he is closer to Buddhist thinking then Christian Faith."(61). His sculpture shows self containment and a certain self comfort. It is geometric in nature all the while fitting into this organic shape- the body. The cold, hard edge architectural form shows a balanced yoga type position reflecting a high tech image. It appears like the pixels from a T.V. screen, though much sharper. His piece is inventive, progressive, and reflects our digital age and also is made from long lasting materials and will be here for generations to come.

By studying Claudel's and Gormley's work we can see that without the use of detail one is able to convey the interior space of the body reflecting tension, isolation and self awareness, even though their styles are so diverse. We can see that the time in which these two artists lived influenced their manner of work. They were both progressive in their depiction of the human figure. Claudel coming from the Impressionist Movement and Gormley a Contemporary artist with an Indexical style. We are all encapsulated in bodies riddled with emotions such as fear, longing, and isolation, questioning and observing our existence. As humans we seek connection to each other,collectively. Claudel's pieces offer an intimate relationship while Gormley uses his process' to bring us inside his works. He has a more cerebral approach. We are all born alone and die alone. Sometimes we embrace ourselves to comfort this sense of separateness. We can either look upon our condition as awareness from within, without, or both.

Works Cited "Antony Gormley".Melbourne: Anna Schwartz Gallery. 29/11/2007.http//www.ondo. net/it/mostra/63083 Hutchinson,Grombrich,Njatin. Antony Gormley. London: Phaidon, 1995. Print Koenigmann, Wendy."Claudel of Dreams and Nightmares". 2004 Wendy Koenigmann. http://www.geocities//lycium7/camilleclaudel.htm/ Paris, Reine-Marie. Camille The Life of Camille Claudel,Rodin's Muse and Mistress. New York, New York, 1984. Print Peat, F.David. "Interview with Antony Gormley". June 4,1996 London, England.

Antony Gormley Clutch 2007 (Steel)

Camille Claudel The Leaning Man 1885 (Plaster)