There are two forces at work in sculpture. One pushes it towards the waxwork, where materials suggest something quite contrary to their native qualities - marble flesh, wooden flowers, metal drapery and so on. The other takes it towards material for material's sake, towards the pebble which lives by its pebble-ish nature alone. Nicholas Penny's book shows how these forces are reconciled.

LRB 2 December 1993 | PDF Download