Sculpture
Credits: 3
Elective course for First and Second year
Zohar Gottesman
Zohar Gottesman (born in Israel, 1979) is a sculptor and a graduate of the Department of Fine Arts at Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem. He holds a bachelor's degree in archaeology and art history from Ben-Gurion University. Gottesman specialized in traditional sculpting techniques in Carrara, Italy.
His works have been exhibited in numerous exhibitions in museums, galleries, and public spaces in Israel and around the world, including the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, MoBY, Museum of Contemporary Art in Bolzano, Italy, Petach Tikva Museum of Art, House of Arts in Brno, Czech Republic, K.A.D.E in Amersfoort, Netherlands, and more. Gottesman has received various awards and grants, including the Young Artist Award from the Ministry of Culture and Sport, the America-Israel Cultural Foundation Scholarship, the Outset Grant for Contemporary Artists (2017/2022), the Pais Award for Visual Arts (2022/2018/2017), and the Independent Creators Grant from the Ministry of Culture and Sport. He is also a lecturer at Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, the School of Multidisciplinary Art in Shenkar, and the Midrasha School of Art in Beit Berl.
Semester A – Additive sculpting from observation, clay modeling
During this course, we will learn to understand form and volume, and apply them through additive sculpture in clay. We will learn how to build a skeleton and add mass on top of it, analyze shapes and weights. How to understand anatomy, structure, and surface. We will work with live models and plaster examples. Finally, we will learn how to convert the material through molding and casting into a durable sculpture.
Semester B – Subtractive sculpting, wood carving
Since the dawn of humanity, people have been working wood for various purposes. The earliest evidence of wood working are spear tips that date back around 300,000 years. Ancient wood sculptures can be traced to approximately 12,500 years before our time. During this course, we will learn ancient classical techniques for carving and shaping wood. We will work on carving wooden masks inspired by traditional masks. We will learn to use various tools such as chisels and gouges for wood. Different types of wood and different approaches to understanding three-dimensionality and its application in material will be explored. We will also cover the stages of the making process, from sketches and 3D models through material conversion through molding, and finally apply them to wood. After completing the wood mask project, we will add on it contemporary material layers.
