1997年5月托福阅读全真试题(doc13).doc

Question 1-8

WITh Robert Laurent and William Zorach, direct carving
enters into the story of modern sculpture in the UnITed States.
Direct carving - in which the sculptors themselves carve stone
or wood wITh mallet and chisel - must be recognized as some
-thing more than just a technique. Implicit in IT is an aesthetic
principle as well: that the medium has certain qualITIEs of beauty
and expressiveness wITh which sculptors must bring their
own aesthetic sensibilITIEs into harmony. For example, some-
times the shape or veining in a pIEce of stone or wood suggests,
perhaps even dictates, not only the ultimate form, but
even the subject matter.

The technique of direct carving was a break wITh the nineteenth-
century tradITion in which the making of a clay model
was considered the creative act and the work was then turned
over to studio assistants to be cast in plaster or bronze or carved
in marble. Neoclassical sculptors seldom held a mallet or chisel
in their own hands, readily conceding that the assistants they
employed were far better than they were at carving the finished
marble.
WITh the turn-of-the-century Crafts movement and the
discovery of nontradITional sources of inspiration, such as
wooden African figures and masks, there arose a new urge for
hands-on, personal execution of art and an interaction wITh the
medium. Even as early as the 1880's and 1890's, nonconformist
European artists were attempting direct carving. By
the second decade of the twentIEth century, Americans -
Laurent and Zorach most notably - had adopted IT as their primary
means of working.

Born in France, Robert Laurent(1890-1970) was a prodigy
who received his education in the UnITed States. In 1905
he was sent to Paris as an apprentice to an art dealer, and in
the years that followed he wITnessed the birth of Cubism,
discovered primITive art, and learned the techniques of wood-
carving from a frame maker.

Back in New York city by 1910, Laurent began carving
pieces such as The PrIEstess, which reveals his fascination wITh
African, pre-Columbian, and South Pacific art. Taking a walnut
plank, the sculptor carved the expressive, stylized design.
IT is one of the earlIEst examples of direct carving in American
sculpture. The plank's form dictated the rigidly frontal vIEw
and the low relIEf. Even ITs irregular shape must have appealed
to Laurent as a break with a long-standing tradITion that
rEQuired a sculptor to work wIThin a perfect rectangle or square.