The World as Sculpture. The Changing Status of Sculpture from the Renaissance to the Present Day

This cultural history, delving back through the centuries, sets out to answer how sculpture, for so long regarded as a more limited art, has come to take a leading role today? From the Renaissance to the 19th century, sculpture was painting's poor relation. Yet, from the start of the 20th century, sculpture increasingly took centre stage: the Turner Prize is usually won by a sculptor of some form. This book aims to answer the questions: why is this, and what has happened? Illustrated throughout, containing charaters and bizarre incidents as well as illuminating examples and heated arguments, this work offers a guide to the art of the past and up to the end of the 20th century.