I got rejected for my first juried show

[grommet]

Originally Posted by Blake

Here is a piece that was recently rejected in a competition...
Anyone care to speculate why?
Entitled "The Ecstasy of Saint Theresa"
Blake

Making no assumptions, I'll first ask what the parameters of the competition were, and who sponsored it.

[Giotto]

Well Blake showing a Saint in the nude is always risky and then the ecstasy part...is she playing with herself ? I would say your lucky to get off with just a rejection and not an excommunication. Also I would think Bernini had the last word on her.

Anyway, Many people have been saying realistic figurative sculpture is dead...everything has been done....My opinion is that this doesn't mean it's dead it just means the bar has been raised. the choice is to sculpt for the galleries and crank out the single figure nude over and over or to really try to understand what it means to project your vision, intellect and emotions into your work to the extent it can only come form you. Javier Marin for example

G

[mountshang]

Originally Posted by Blake

Here is a piece that was recently rejected in a competition...
Anyone care to speculate why?
Entitled "The Ecstasy of Saint Theresa"
Blake

Since you've made the association rather inescapable, Blake, it's impossible for me to consider this piece apart from my love for Bernini and fascination with the entire 17th C. in Western European art and religion.

So I find this piece repugnant - and perhaps the jury did as well.

Which is not necessarily a bad thing -- Damien Hirst just made 210 million dollars for satisfying a taste for such things -- but perhaps the jury thought they were curating a different kind of competition.

[GlennT]

I would have to second what Mountshang said, despite my overall high regard for Blake's work. I think in this case the title ruins it for many. If it were simply meant as an erotic piece without dragging the name of a revered saint or one of Bernini's masterpieces into it, the work could stand on its own merits, which still for me falls short of the standards achieved in others of Blake's works.

My main problem with it sculpturally is the modeling of the torso as seen in the first two photos. Some of the creases seem inexplicable and draw attention away from the overall form. The fourth view, from the opposite side, is one that works very well, and if the earlier view was as consistent in quality it would be quite fine.

[Blake]

Thank you all for your insights,
I find it wonderful to try different titles and see how they influence the viewer. When titled simply "Ecstasy" it was associated with the current recreational drug of the same name. Well the work is erotic the reaction seems to be more a result of the religious connotations than the eroticism.
I am pleased to have received your thoughts, thank you.
Blake

[sculptor]

Originally Posted by Blake

Here is a piece that was recently rejected in a competition...
Anyone care to speculate why?
Entitled "The Ecstasy of Saint Theresa"
Blake

I doubt the jury found your double entendre(the correct phrase is double entente) nearly as entertaining as had you.

[Giotto]

We were talking about hot "girls on a couch"..here is one I like
G

[grommet]

Originally Posted by sculptor

I doubt the jury found your double entendre(the correct phrase is double entente) nearly as entertaining as had you.

what's your source? I don't speak french & rely on google as a language lifeline...

en·tente (n-tnt)
n.
1. An agreement between two or more governments or powers for cooperative action or policy: "the economic entente between the Soviet Union and western Europe" Robert W. Tucker.
2. The parties to such an agreement.

Main Entry: dou·ble en·ten·dre
Pronunciation: \ˈdüb-əl-äⁿ-ˈtäⁿd(-rə); ˈdə-bəl-än-ˈtänd(-rə)\
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural double entendres \same also -ˈtäⁿz; -ˈtän-drəz\
Etymology: obsolete French, literally, double meaning
Date: 1673
1 : ambiguity of meaning arising from language that lends itself to more than one interpretation
2 : a word or expression capable of two interpretations with one usually risqué

[sculptor]

"entente" by itself means an understanding (normally between 2 countries)

"double entente", meanwhile means a "a double or equivocal meaning; a play on words"

Webster's 20th c., 2nd edition "unabridged"

google has it's value, but represents the dumbing down of our culture as does the dictionary associated with the web, and thereby, this site.

speaking of which
calling a complete dictionary "unabridged" seems really silly

[sculptor]

jeez babe

we can't even agree on the meaning of words

talk about the tower of babble

(no offense---I even call 40 year old men "babe")
some days, i think you youngsters are really peculiar

[grommet]

Originally Posted by sculptor

jeez babe

we can't even agree on the meaning of words

talk about the tower of babble

(no offense---I even call 40 year old men "babe")
some days, i think you youngsters are really peculiar

Only some days? not bad.
I have never heard "entente" used at all. I have always heard "entendre".
It is in our 2 volume compact Oxford dictionary as double entendre only."Double entente" did not come up in Google at all.
If you say it's entente now, I'll suggest that it's because of "common usage", or the progression/mutation of language based on the way Everyman speaks. Yeah, this is the pinnacle of babble, alright.
I will suggest that soon you will find the words flustrated, prostrate (for part of the male nuts & bolts), inclination (to mean idea), and a variety of others --oh yeah, "piffy" too. I'd like to submit my brother's word "crammits" for something. We don't know what it is because he was 2 at the time, but it's a word with potential.
Bottom line? everything is subjective, whether it be juried shows or language. Go with the flow.

[sculptor]

common usage
yup
i kin go widdat

a living language is everchanging
i suspect that piffy is a bastardization of pithy
just like we get bedlam from a mispronunciation of the asylum called bethlehem
in London

those damned brits keep mumbling and changing their language

[mountshang]

My problem with the two contemporaries that Giotto showed is that the composition stays on the surface. Where the forms are sharply defined (Eichinger) they feel tight and weak -- and when are coarse (Marin), they feel ugly and broken.

Neither of which are problems I feel with the piece that Musicman showed - so I could share his enjoyment of a beautiful young woman. (indeed - I shared it so much, I remembered it as a nude)

Here's a bunch of other reclining female figures the I like -- most of them are, I think,of similar size.

They're all from the last hundred years -- and I'm not sure that this genre (small, single, reclining female figure) was all that popular before 1850. And even in the 20th C., I couldn't find a single one from Japan (although they are very active in Euro-style figure sculpture) -- while it seems like Italians are the most excited about it.

Here's the ones I've downloaded - and all of them are contemporary except for the last:

Isabel McIlvain (American)-------------- I can't imagine a more meticulous study of anatomy - worthy of a wildlife artist - yet still it's composed

http://www.ilovefiguresculpture.com/...tury/cont2.jpg

Maite Duval (Dutch)------------ Not so precise and anatomical - but still it's swinging in space

http://www.ilovefiguresculpture.com/...duval/duv1.jpg

Dick Aerts (Dutch) ------------- I really like this one - it's so dreamy and meditative. This guy is on my wavelength.

http://www.ilovefiguresculpture.com/...y/aerts102.jpg

Arturo Martini (Italian 1889-1947)---------- a leading sculptor among a generation of great sculptors - with a piece so incredibly delicious, I can barely stand to look at it.


http://www.ilovefiguresculpture.com/...tini/mart9.jpg

***********


And here's a bunch more for those who are interested:


http://www.ilovefiguresculpture.com/...mmert/lam9.jpg will lammert


http://www.ilovefiguresculpture.com/...mert/lam11.jpg lammert


http://www.ilovefiguresculpture.com/...rcks/mck26.jpg marcks


http://www.ilovefiguresculpture.com/...olbe/kol54.jpg Kolbe 1924


http://www.ilovefiguresculpture.com/...n/svara102.jpg Duilio Svara


http://www.ilovefiguresculpture.com/...cagnani102.jpg Eugenio Maccagnani


http://www.ilovefiguresculpture.com/...ian/ital56.jpg Gino Colognesi


http://www.ilovefiguresculpture.com/...scan/tus63.jpg bruno catarzi


http://www.ilovefiguresculpture.com/...scan/tus21.jpg Delio Granchi


http://www.ilovefiguresculpture.com/...ian/ital54.jpg Angelo Balzardi


http://www.ilovefiguresculpture.com/...brazil1242.jpg


http://www.ilovefiguresculpture.com/.../krantz102.jpg Robert Krantz


http://www.ilovefiguresculpture.com/...rican2/us9.jpg umlauf


http://www.ilovefiguresculpture.com/...rwerf/15-1.jpg


http://www.yevdokimov.ru/eng/sculptures/pages/12.htm Yevdokimov


http://www.ilovefiguresculpture.com/...faik/faik2.jpg Faik


http://www.ilovefiguresculpture.com/...ry/scul102.jpg Anna Ferrari


http://www.eddyroos.nl/Kleinplastiek...0Liesbeth.htmm eddy roos


http://www.ilovefiguresculpture.com/...ntury/kato.jpg kato yutaka


http://www.ilovefiguresculpture.com/...y/salicath.jpg Karen Salicath


http://www.ilovefiguresculpture.com/...tini/tus35.jpg quinto martini


http://www.ilovefiguresculpture.com/.../antonios2.jpg anthony antonios


http://www.ilovefiguresculpture.com/...oati/allo5.jpg adriano alloati


http://www.ilovefiguresculpture.com/...etti/croc6.jpg crocetti


http://www.ilovefiguresculpture.com/...tti/croc14.jpg crocetti


http://www.ilovefiguresculpture.com/...tini/mart6.jpg arturo martini


http://www.ilovefiguresculpture.com/...eropian101.jpg michael keropian


http://www.ilovefiguresculpture.com/...20duver104.jpg Xavier Duver


http://www.brunolucchesi.com/BRUNO_L...s/NUDES.html#7 Bruno Lucchesi


http://www.marcocornini.it/opere/op11.html Marco Corini



http://www.ilovefiguresculpture.com/...%20DAVILA2.jpg
Cicero Davila (Brazil)

[Tlouis]

Leave us not forget "entente cordiale".