Carved wood

There is a whole philosophy around the act performed by the sculptor who practices direct carving. Picasso said that “sculpture is the art of intelligence”, and no wonder, because to sculpt is to learn to eliminate what is left over, to see what is hidden in the material, to carve and not to hurt, to find the form by eliminating the formless, the irregular. In the case of wood, it is a work of love that lets out the figure that sleeps in its tree heart.

The well-known phrase is attributed to Thomas Edison: “Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration”.  If there is one art to which this thought can be applied, it is precisely direct carving in sculpture. Knowing how to give the right blow, if chisel and hammer are used, or cutting with a knife, in the softness of the material, requires precision and dexterity that only the practice and the three-dimensional vision of an artist can give. After taking away the thickest volumes of the piece, its veins are studied and so begins the hard work of searching for the forms – taking out angles and roundness, concaves and convexes – of stopping in details with no hurry, and finally the endless task of sanding and polishing.

Woods are not the same, nor are they worked in the same way: soft ones are used by craftsmen and recommended to amateurs who make carving their hobby: small pieces of linden, pine, balsa wood can be worked with a simple knife or gouge; others, such as teak, walnut, cherry, oak, resistant to woodworm and changes in temperature and humidity, sometimes require drills, saws and, percussion tools for roughing.

There are also precious or noble woods of superior quality. Some because they are very stable and resistant, others because of their beautiful colors and veins, and some simply because they are scarce or difficult to obtain.  The perfumed sandalwood used in fine woodworking, teak for the construction of boats, mahogany, beautiful, and very resistant for furniture. The sycamore was required by the pharaohs for their tombs.  Ebony, originally from Africa, is used in sculpture and the manufacture of musical instruments, including piano keys. Few sculptors dare to use the very hard amaranth or purpleheart, which is beautifully violet in color and difficult to work with, so dense that it does not float in the water.

Wooden sculptures cannot survive the passage of time in the open; more durable materials such as bronze, marble, iron, or resin are used for statues and monuments. However, in all art and history museums and churches and cathedrals of Europe and Latin America thousands of works of art remain in this material: sarcophagi, ships, and gods of all cultures; images of saints, triptychs, and religious bas-reliefs.  From Gauguin, Brancusi, or Picasso to African figurines and ritual masks, artists and craftsmen of all times and all over the world have made wood carving a powerful vehicle of expression.