Produced with the help of cement mixers, moulds, and casts, concrete sculptures can have immense visual impact while still maintaining a grounded form. What’s more, given concrete’s durability and strength, it is one of the easiest materials to care for, even in tougher environmental conditions. Throughout modern history, people have been using cement mixers, moulds, and aggregates to produce affordable and exciting artistic products. These artworks encourage us to consider the many applications and remarkable versatility of concrete. If you’re interested in concrete’s application in the art world, then read this article to learn more about some of the world’s popular concrete sculptures.
Some of the most widely known artworks are sculptures made from or reinforced by concrete. Concrete is something that we interact with every single day and all over the world, across countries and cultures, concrete is everywhere. Representing modernisation, development, and industrialisation, concrete is a material that we tend to forget about simply because there is so much of it; however, we cannot forget that it has played a fundamental role in the world of art and culture, especially in the craft and practice of sculpture. Respected artists like Auguste Rodin, Henry Moore, Edoardo Chillida, Isamu Noguchi, and Pablo Picasso have all incorporated cement into their work in one way or another. Especially in the world of modern art, we have seen concrete become increasingly popular as artists look for resourceful ways to apply everyday materials to visionary concepts.
The Modernist Movement
In the late 19th and 20th centuries, culture, technology, and the social fabric itself began to change rapidly; this was both a cause and effect of major steps in industrialisation as well as scientific advancements. In art, the shifts in creative content matter and style visually translated the changing moods and zeitgeist of the time. Artists and creatives became preoccupied with breaking away from established schools of thought, conventions, and norms.
As the new age beckoned, many began to experiment with their own unique individual expression and, consequently, began embracing cubism, dadaism, surrealism, abstract expressionism, futurism, and more. Such disciplines were not inspired by one singular source, nor were they influenced and popularised by a select few.
Other modernist artists, like the futurists known as Umberto Boccioni, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, and Giacomo Balla, were also interpreting the aesthetics of the machine age in their own way. They produced sculptures and paintings focused on urban landscapes, modern life, and the dynamism of technology. Meanwhile, dadaists were producing anti-art to critique the status quo of bourgeois society, using art as a medium for anti-establishment rhetoric.
Simultaneously, Salvador Dalí and René Magritte were exploring their subconscious dreams, while abstract expressionists like Jackson Pollock produced large-scale paintings that used colour and brushwork to convey a wide array of emotions. The modernist movement was a massive reshaping of contemporary artistic practices, and ultimately, it has been remembered as a manifestation of a changing world.
The changes were evident not only in art but also in architecture, music, and literature. Architecturally, we have been seeing the echoes of the Bauhaus movement still to this day. Founded by Walter Groupis in 1919 in Germany, the Bauhaus movement blended artistic creativity with industrial elements. The designs focused on functionalism and simplicity, which was quite a change from the more ornamental designs that preceded them.
The bold but simple style of Bauhaus is echoed in Picasso’s fascination with cubism. Alongside Georges Braque, Picasso revolutionised modern art principles through his creative use of geometrical shapes and fragmented form, which allowed viewers to see multiple perspectives and representations.
Picasso was himself especially fascinated by concrete; in fact, at some point, he even conceptualised a 100-foot concrete monument that was planned to dominate the University of South Florida campus in Tampa. Unfortunately, the project was rejected due to its costly $10 million budget, but that didn’t stop Picasso from producing many other impeccable concrete sculptures with his fabricator, Carl Nesjar.
Carl was a Norwegian artist who introduced him to the method of sculpting concrete, after which Picasso produced nearly 300 works made from concrete. Alongside his cement works, he also produced artworks with plaster, sheet metal, and bronze. But his concrete works were perhaps most fascinating because of their innovative application of a material we commonly associate with pavements, skyscrapers, and parking lots.
Famous Sculptures Made With Concrete
Cement mixers have not only helped the development of the construction industry by enhancing efficiency, increasing scale, and standardising mixing outputs. In the world of art and culture, they have been equally useful. First invented in 1904 by German inventor Richard Bodlaender, who could not have foreseen how cement mixers would be used and applied in so many different contexts.
From DIY projects to fine art sculpting and industrial construction, there are a huge number of potential products that can be created with the help of these tools. However, even before the time of automated and mechanised cement mixers, artists have been working with concrete in more manual ways to produce fascinating artworks that stay in the public mind. Some classic examples are listed below.
Auguste Rodin: The Thinker
The Thinker is one of Auguste Rodin’s most famous sculptures, and it can be found at the Musée Rodin in Paris. The sculpture itself is bronze, but it sits atop stone; however, one can find other versions of the famous artwork in concrete all over the world. Rodin developed concrete versions of this piece to improve accessibility, as cement is naturally more affordable.
Rodin often worked with concrete when developing pre-castings and platforms and when experimenting with new ideas. The work depicts a heroic man with a tense facial expression and a slouched posture – he appears to be in deep thought with his hand held underneath his chin. The artwork has come to represent philosophical thought and the intellectual pursuit of modern man.
Mathias Goeritz: The Five Continents
Goeritz was another German-born artist with a background in philosophy, architecture, painting, and sculpture. Goeritz eventually travelled to Mexico, and it is there that he became one of the founding innovators behind the movement of emotional architecture, a design concept that focuses on centering human experience as opposed to prioritising functionalism.
This movement focused on using local and regional textures and materials, as well as production focused on colour, lighting, and spatial arrangement, which at the time was highly experiential. In 1957, Goeritz teamed up with Luis Barragán to produce ‘Torres de Satélite’, a collection of five concrete towers with heights ranging from 30 to 52 metres, each representing one of the five continents and together providing the context for modern urban systems. The sculpture is situated at the entrance of Ciudad Satélite and was certainly produced with the aid of cement mixers.
Sol LeWitt: Concrete Block Structure
Concrete Block Structure is a three-dimensional sculpture made by Sol LeWitt, who is well-known for his sculptural works, which use everything from steel to wood, polyurethane, and concrete to make conceptual and interpretative artworks. Concrete as a material has, for LeWitt, become a symbol of accessibility as well as a useful medium through which he can design modular structures.
The artist has often spoken about the material being impenetrable yet unfinished, providing the perfect surface for the projection of new ideas and applications. At Rhona Hoffman Gallery, guests can see the ubiquity of concrete by visiting the Negative Pyramid, a remarkable structure that references Egyptian temples and mausoleums from Mesoamerica. The piece is just one of many incredible examples of how simple aggregates and vision can be enmeshed to produce towering installations like the famous Double Negative Pyramid.
Dušan Džamonja: Monument to the Revolution
Located in Petrova Gora, Croatia, Monument to the Revolution is one of Džamonja’s most famous sculptures, as it is an important site of memory for Yugoslav people. The sculpture, which is a towering mountain of concrete, most definitely made with the help of a cement mixer, was produced to commemorate the Yugoslav Partisan resistance movement. To make this piece, one would need to use cement mixers to combine aggregates like shale, silica sand, and furnace slag.
This would then be developed into a raw mixture that could then be moulded to specifications. Then, piece by piece, the artist and his team would need to assemble the cement blocks and ensure that structural enforcement is sound. This may sound like a complex engineering feat, but what results is a moving piece of art that pays homage to the Yugoslavian people’s history.
Henry Moore: Head of a Woman
Henry Moore produced approximately 21 sculptures out of concrete in eight years, beginning in 1926. At the time, his work with concrete signified a rapid development in the growth of his craft; concrete, being an easy and accessible construction material, offered Moore many exciting new opportunities to cast, shape, carve, and pigment new works. One of his more famous and recognisable works is Head of a Woman, which was developed in 1926.
Moore showed this fine concrete work at the Warren Gallery in London in 1928; after that came many other concrete structures, including Torso (1926), Mask (1927), Suckling Child (1927), Reclining Woman (1927), and Duck (1927). During their time, such sculptures were often critiqued for their use of concrete as opposed to more popular sculptural materials such as brass and marble. However, today they are recognised for their formidable durability and innovation.
Sculpting With Concrete
Just like with any other material, sculpting with concrete requires planning, preparation, and consideration. The first step towards creating a concrete sculpture is conceptualisation – concrete designs are visualised with scale, form, and texture in mind. Therefore, it is necessary to build a mould into which the concrete can be poured and set.
Once the concrete aggregates have been mixed by hand or with a concrete mixer to achieve uniform consistency, the mixture can be carefully poured and cured inside the mould. Eventually, one will be able to demould the concrete sculpture, at which point they can use methods such as sanding, polishing, painting, staining, and sealing to achieve whatever aesthetic has been envisioned.
Of course, many artists choose to mix their concrete by hand. However, when it comes to large-scale sculptural production and installation, a cement mixer can be extremely useful, aiding with efficiency and consistency. Although many only associate the cement mixer with industrial construction and homebuilding, there is always an opportunity for innovation if you have the right tools and attitude. These machines have been put to work in a myriad of industries, offering a useful way to synergise and streamline the production process. With a cement mixer, the development of both buildings and sculptures is not only possible but with some practice, it can be quite simple.