Did you spot the Sculpture Diaries on TV this evening? Waldemar Januszczak Art critic of Channel Four, sets out to prove that sculpture is the single most important subject in Visual Art. He is right of course, I look forward to the next two episodes.
As an aside though; he did bring up some stuff I would have avoided- some of it a little ‘on the fringe’!
Sculpture is more important because social space is more important than private space (however how much we Americans wish it were otherwise)
People may love paintings – but they will pray to sculptures.
It is interesting that the ‘third commandment’ expressly forbids this and immediately the Israelites disobey by making the arc of the covenant. Just about every religion produces sculptural representations of something. Can you imagine a world without sculpture?
This is more to do with power over people, very dangerous to take some things too literally especially when ‘in power’.