Like Life: Sculpture, Color, and the Body

By Luke Syson, Sheena Wagstaff, Emerson Bowyer, and Brinda Kumar

Since the dawn of history, humans have created three-dimensional renderings of the body, and for centuries artists strove for realism, often creating works of stunning verisimilitude and using color to enhance religious, cultural, or personal meaning. This volume examines key sculptural works from 14th century Europe to the global present, revealing new insights into the strategies artists deploy to blur the distinction between art and life.

Featuring works created in traditional media such as wood and marble as well as the unexpected such as human hair, rope, and blood, Like Life presents objects both familiar and shocking, including effigies, dolls, mannequins, automata, waxworks, and anatomical models. Insightful essays by both art historians and contemporary artists consider works by artists ranging from Donatello and Degas to Picasso, Kiki Smith, and Jeff Koons, culminating in a vivid and provocative exploration of three-dimensional representations of the human body.

Luke Syson is Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Chairman in the Department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts, Sheena Wagstaff is Leonard A. Lauder Chairman in the Department of Modern and Contemporary Art, and Brinda Kumar is assistant curator in the Department of Modern and Contemporary Art all at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Emerson Bowyer is Searle Associate Curator of European Painting and Sculpture at the Art Institute of Chicago.