The Art of Sculpture

by Herbert Read

A stunning visual history of sculpture from prehistory to modernity



This book presents an aesthetic of sculptural art, which has too often submitted to the rule of architecture and painting. In this beautifully illustrated book, Sir Herbert Read emphasizes the essential and autonomous nature of sculpture--"Form in its full spatial completeness," in the words of British sculptor Henry Moore. The Art of Sculpture provides historical support and theoretical rigor to this conception. Along the way, this incisive and wide-ranging book takes readers on a breathtaking tour of great works of sculpture from prehistoric times to the modern era.

Genres: Art

412 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1956

About the author

Sir Herbert Edward Read, (December 4, 1893 - June 12, 1968) was an English art historian, poet, literary critic and philosopher, best known for numerous books on art, which included influential volumes on the role of art in education.

Politically, Read considered himself an anarchist, albeit in the English quietist tradition of Edward Carpenter and William Morris. Read was co-founder of the Institute of Contemporary Art & the publisher and editor-in-chief of Jung's collected works in English.

On 11 November 1985, Read was among 16 Great War poets commemorated on a slate stone unveiled in Westminster Abbey's Poet's Corner.

He was the father of the well-known writer Piers Paul Read, the BBC documentary maker John Read, the BBC producer and executive Tom Read, and the art historian Ben Read.

Reviews

[Ben Zammit · Rating 3 out of 5]

“The art of sculpture achieves its maximum and most distinctive effect when the sculpture proceeds almost blindly to the statement of tactile values, values of the palpable, the ponderable, assessable mass”

[Christy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rather painfully academic, but a number of interesting black and white plates of historic sculpture.