Public Research Seminar: What are plaster sculptures? Their materials and techniques

Date and Time　Saturday, October 2024, 10 26:13-30:16 (doors open at 13:XNUMX)
Venue　University of Tsukuba Tokyo Campus Bunkyo Building 116th classroom (3-29-1 Otsuka, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo [approximately 3 minutes walk from Myogadani Station on the Marunouchi Subway Line])
Sponsorship　JSPS Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C) 24K03482 "Making plaster casts into academic resources and constructing art history from a non-Western perspective centered on sculpture history"

Plaster casts based on ancient and early modern Western sculptures were introduced to Japan during the Meiji period with the art education system and have been widely used mainly as teaching materials for drawing. Although these plaster casts have been taken up in the context of tracing the establishment and development of drawing education, they have rarely been discussed directly in art history research rooted in the modern Western values ​​that differentiate and stratify originals and copies, and works and non-works. This workshop will focus on materials and techniques as the first step in an effort to systematize plaster casts in the history of sculpture and to consider their reception and transformation in Japan and other East Asian countries as an active and multi-dimensional manifestation of de-Westernization, rather than a passive and monistic phenomenon of Westernization. The presenters will be Soji Wakimoto, one of the few remaining plaster cast makers in Japan, and Yuji Takahashi, who has worked on many restorations of sculptures by living and deceased artists, including existing early plaster casts.

 

purpose explanation　Rintaro Terakado (University of Tsukuba/Principal Investigator)

Report 1　Soji Wakimoto (produced by Hori Gypsum)

Report 2　Yuji Takahashi (Bronze Studio Ltd.)

General Discussion+ Regarding the "Hercules Full-Length Statue" by Kikuchi Plaster Model Studio (owned by the University of Tsukuba)

Soji Wakimoto, Yuji Takahashi, Nao Kanai (Shinshu University/Research Co-researcher), Shuji Tanaka (Nihon University/Same), Shinya Araki (Tama Art University/Same)