Rendering 3: New Kinds of Art: "Where Bronze Transforms Into Fine Art"

The article which was published September 6, 2012 in the New York Time by Nicole Gates Anderson reports at length that the brick-walled workshop is dark and quiet and small group of men work intently, dressed in silver spaceman jackets and long leather aprons that cover their blue jeans.

The article discusses the situation with a chain and pulley; two men hoist up a stone crucible and tip molten bronze, glowing an orange the color of a burnt sky, into a plaster mold. As a result, later, they will hammer apart the shell and release the sculpture within. It begins with a wax or clay model and ends with a work of art. The article carries a lot of comment that the foundry has been in the sculpture business for 80 years.

Speaking about the history of the foundry we are to say that Bob Spring, whose father, John, started the foundry in 1932, said the business depended on close relationships with a few prominent and prolific artists. His father had the Cubist Jacques Lipchitz as a marquee customer. They attracted such talent by making the impossible possible. It is necessary to note that the Modern Art Foundry still employs an ancient technique known as solid investment casting for its large-scale work. By the way “It makes a huge difference,” said the sculptor Bill Sullivan: “The Old-World technique is known for its ability to take the patina — the bronze absorbs the patina process like a sponge.”

Analyzing the situation it important to emphasize that both types of casting produce an exact bronze replica of an original model created by the artist. Through a series of molds and duplicate forms, the workers create a wax copy. That wax form is then coated by hand with a plaster mixture. The mold is placed in a kiln, the wax melts away and the molten bronze can be poured inside.

It’s an open secret that the foundry rents out a corner of the workshop for classes led by Victor Velastegui and sponsored by two nonprofit arts organizations. It is also very likely that he assisted a high school student preparing a rubber mold.

There is every reason to believe that Braxston Coleman, student said: “The first time I came here, I didn’t know what I was doing”. But two months later, he had made three sculptures. He showed off a bronze relief of an abstract scene that he had just completed. It is hard to predict the course of events in future, but there is some evidence of the improvement of the situation that this craft will survive.

The reporters gives no his personal opinion, but from my point of view the foundry is a new piece of art which should be developed. Who knows may be one day it will be a dominant one in the culture.