The pursuance of naturalness as one of the key trends in the sphere of modern wooden sculpture: domestic practice

Abstract

This article is dedicated to modern trends in the art of wooden sculpture. The key question raised in the article consists in drawing the line between art and craft. The problem of distinguishing between these two terms is one of the crucial issues of the theory of art. Having examined the works of multiple contemporary artists in the genre of wooden sculpture, the author comes to the conclusion that the fundamental difference between craft and artistic wooden sculpture is the pursuance of naturalness by the artists, work with unfinished wood, fixation of the natural the beauty of the material, which is not much inherent to craftsmen. Turning to the modern ecological trends, it is suggested that the task of a contemporary artist and a human who desires to live in harmony with nature lies in cognizing the beauty of nature, even in its unsightly forms. The author claims that the greatness of nature is its diversity, in the current era of excessive production (for example, oversaturation), which also pertains to art objects, our shared goal is to working with the objects discovered, which are exposed to minimal processing, and first and foremost, demonstrate the beauty of nature.