The
Renaissance
Society

This exhibition, curated by Richard Flood, is an important survey of recent figurative sculpture, including over thirty works by major contemporaray artists. The current figurative revival has tended to be assesssed in two dimensions. This misses a pivotal body of work which has significantly inlfuenced those painters working in the figurative mode. It is only now becoming clear that some of the most important elements in contemporary figuration--the exuberant handling of media, the emotive subject matter, the highly stylized modeling--were first and most innovatively explored in contemporary sculpture. This work has little to do with representationalism (its goals are psychic, not documentary), and much to do with a reinvestigation of the properties and intent of expressionism. It also offers a fascinating view of the accellerated crossover which contemporary artists are pursuing in an attempt to break down the formal boundaries which have traditionally separated painting from sculpture.