Top Ten

[Robin Antar <info@zzzzzzzzzz>]

Sorry to start but Louise Bourgeois does not do her own stone work, she has
carvers do it for her.

Robin Antar
I was a student of hers back in 1976 at the school of visual Arts

John Graham writes:
"Which one of these boys ever did any stone carving? 
We studied painters if we ever cared to."

Hi John,

To reply to your second line first I cannot do any 
better than repeat what Clive wrote recently where 
he said  ". . . interest in non-stone sculptors has
a very productive outcome because they tend to 
show me ways to put things into stone sculpture 
that may never have been done before."

Is the world not our oyster, or don't you eat seafood?  ;-)

As to which of the 'boys' (sorry Louise, not my 
word choice) that work in stone:

Louise Bourgeois
Constantin Brancusi
Igor Mitoraj
Eric Gill
Andy Goldsworthy
Isamu Noguchi

I am sorry I didn't identify the artists except by name,
perhaps it was presumptuous of me.  
Though I went to art school, as a stone carver I am
mostly self-taught, and as such have always been 
fascinated about reading about others who have
worked this medium (and other materials for the 
reasons Clive so deftly stated).  Because most of 
my research is in printed format,  I don't have any 
links to provide for the names, though you can try 
Googling them.  

Here is a bit more of my personal take on those listed:

Louise Bourgeois - (b.1911) though born in France, 
she has lived in America since a child.  She was 
the artist chosen to represent the US in the Venice
Beinnale in 1993.  She explored (still explores) many 
types of materials over her eighty-something-year 
career as a sculptor, but returns to stone again 
and again.

Constantin Brancusi - (1876-1957) Rumanian born &
schooled, he walked from Rumania to Paris in 1904 
where he lived and sculpted for the rest of his life.  Working 
with Rodin briefly after arriving in Paris, he left that studio
saying, "an acorn doesn't prosper in the shade of a great 
oak tree."  Well -known for his essential forms in stone, 
wood, and bronze he also was the innovator who 
integrated sculpture with the landscape in his Târgu-Jiu 
war memorial in 1937.  

Igor Mitoraj - (b.1944) German born sculptor of Polish 
parents who lives/works in France and Pietrasanta.
He is known for his metaphorical semi-classical/
semi-mythological imagery carved in stone and 
cast in metal.

Eric Gill - (1882-1940) English sculptor who was the 
primary proponent of direct carving in England
during the early years of the 20th century, known for 
his powerfully sensual figurative religious imagery,
his lettercarving, and his many typefaces and engravings.

Andy Goldsworthy - (b.1956) English sculptor living in 
Scotland who works with nature at a primal level.  
"Garden of Stones" is recent installation where 
Goldsworthy worked with stone, trees, and soil to 
create a metaphor for tenacity and fragility of life.  
Eighteen boulders were cored and in each a single
sapling is planted.  As the trees mature, each will
grow to fill and become one with the stone. 

I only put the above artists on my top ten list, but since 
you seem to be so demanding of exclusivity in the nature
of the lists I'll add some other names that I think any 
self-respecting stone carver with an interest in the 
(relatively recent) history of their chosen field should be 
familiar with . . . 

John B. Flannagan - (died 1942) American stone sculptor 
who worked in fieldstone mostly found in Long Island, 
New York.  His work has a determination, directness and 
honesty that rivals that of Eric Gill.

Stop, hold your horses . . . !

As I write this I reconsider -- perhaps you should do 
some research on your own.  To that educational end, 
I will simply continue by providing some of the names 
that are on my list of 20th century artists (again, edited 
only to artists who do work in stone - though not 
necessarily exclusively in that medium).
Some of the names I am certain are familiar to you, but 
perhaps not all of them . . . I envy you the as-yet-to be 
discovered joys of finding the treasure of a kindred spirit 
in the working of stone from this additional list of 48  
names (listed in reverse alphabetical order by first name, 
which simply is the order I copied them from my 
database into the email).  Except for Finlay, Messerschmidt, 
and Pompon I have never tried Googling any of these artists, 
so I have no idea what you will find on the internet . . . but 
they are all in print. 

Takeshi Tanabe, Seiji Kunishima, Richard Long, 
Peter Randall-Page, Ossip Zadkine, Novello Finotti, 
Michael Singer, Max Bill, Manuel Neri, José de Creeft, 
Jene Highstein, Jesús Bautista Morales, Jean (Hans) 
Arp, Jean-Gabriel Chauvin, Jane B. Armstrong, Jan 
Dries, James Rosati, Jacob Epstein, Ian Hamilton Finlay, 
Horace Farlowe, Herbert Haseltine, Henri Laurens, 
Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, Henry Moore, Harry Kivijärvi, 
Guiliano Vangi, Gió Pomodoro, Gigi Guadagnucci, 
Gaston Lachaise, Franz Xavier Messerschmidt (ok, so 
he isn't 20th century!), Frank Dobson, Françoise Pompon, 
Francesco Somaini, Edouard Marcel Sandoz, Cleo 
Hartwig, Charles Cordier (no, he isn't 20th century 
either!), Chaim Gross, César Baldaccini, Barbara 
Hepworth, August Rodin, Aristide Malliol, Antoine Poncet, 
Anthony Pryor, André Derain, Amedeo Modigliani, 
Alexander Archipenko, Alberto Viani, Akio Makigawa. 

Good Carving (and Unearthing Joys) to You,
Don

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