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“The Body: Reformed in Plaster,” a selection of sculpture created last semester by students in the Fundamentals of Sculpture course led by Alastair Noble, assistant professor of art, is on display in an area adjacent to the Special Collections Reading Room at Skillman Library. The exhibit began in early December and runs through Feb. 13.
Following several weeks of studies in clay, in which they sculpted a reclining clay figure based on a live model, the students created abstract forms suggested by the earlier project.
Each artist started with a differently shaped plaster mold. The way that the plaster dried determined the shape of the sculpture. The students carved an asymmetrical form by focusing on elements of parts of the body in the reclining clay figure.
“This assignment gives them an opportunity to be creative in a way in which they can draw from what they’ve studied,” says Noble. “At the same time, it gives them liberty to abstract the form.”
Following this project, the students transformed this plaster form into a crossed planar structure made of plywood. The approach was loosely based on the Russian Constructivist style of Naum Gabo.
One section of the class was comprised of Keely Schmidt ’03, Melissa Spitz ’06, Gabriel Fernandez –Obregon ’03, and Jacqueline Byrne ’03. A second section included Matthew O’Donnell ’05, Saikripa Sen ’06, Kristen Harpine ’03, Jennifer Gentile ’03, Jen Rubenstein ’04, Alyssa Nicoletti ’03, Thomas Sheehan ’03, and Maura Oliphant ’03.
Noble has been newly appointed by the art department to head up the sculpture program in the Williams Visual Arts Building. His own art has been displayed in solo exhibitions at Robert Pardo Gallery, N.Y.; Center for Visual Arts Gallery at Brookdale College, N.J.; View Gallery, N.J.; New Jersey State Museum, Trenton; Anderson Gallery, Richmond, Va.; Nerlino Gallery, N.Y.; Stux Gallery, N.Y.; and Marian Goodman Gallery, N.Y.
His work has been part of dozens of group exhibitions, including a show last year at Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, Italy. In 2000, his work was included in group exhibitions in Italy, New York (two), and New Jersey.
Noble has written reviews over the past several years for Sculpture and has produced other published articles as well, including a piece in Journal of Architecture.
He earned a master’s of fine arts from Rutgers University and a bachelor’s degree with honors from Hull College of Art, England.