The sculpture below by Michael Richards is an important work and can be used to inspire ideas for Figurative Sculpture assignment. Keep in mind, your assignment does not ask for the full human figure. Rather, you are creating a sculpture that references the upper torso, shoulders and head.
Tar Baby vs. St. Sebastian
1999
The golden-hued sculpture is a life-sized aviator pelted with toy airplanes.
The artist melds a racist slur with iconic imagery from art history, conjuring Roman arrows stabbing a Christian martyr.
For this particular work, Richards cast his own body, clothed as a Tuskegee Airman, to layer allusions to severe injustice and fatal sacrifice.
The Tuskegee Airmen were a group of African American military pilots (fighter and bomber) and airmen who fought in World War II.
At age 38, Richards perished in the 9/11 attack on Tower One of the World Trade Center, where he had been working in a Lower Manhattan Cultural Council studio.
Source links:
Hyperallergic
Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami
Michael Richards in his Studio, Miami Beach, 1998 (image by Carolyn Swiszcz)
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