By Arye Shapiro
Bas-relief sculpture is an art form that dates back at least 20,000 years. It has coexisted with full-round sculpture in nearly every civilization from ancient Egypt to the present day. Bas-relief (bas means low in French) ranges in size from colossal architectural decoration to tiny lettering on coins. It has been made from a variety of solid materials including clay, metal, wood, stone, concrete, bone, ivory, and even paper.

In Austin, examples of bas-relief sculpture abound. On the University of Texas campus, decorative bas-relief panels of Texas plants and animals are mounted under roof overhangs of the older buildings. The pedestal supporting the Martin Luther King, Jr., statue contains four bronze bas-reliefs depicting significant events in the life of the civil rights leader. A few blocks from the Texas State Capitol, six huge bas-relief panels, illustrating milestones in Texas history, adorn the main entrance of the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum. Elisabet Ney, a prominent neo-classical sculptor who immigrated to Texas in the mid-1800’s, sculpted bas-relief portraits in clay, plaster, and marble. A few of these are on display at the Elisabet Ney Museum in Austin’s Hyde Park.

Bas-relief employs the techniques of drawing and sculpture. The sculptor creates flattened form by compressing depth, the third dimension. Physical space and the laws of perspective are combined to yield a low, relatively flat sculpture that appears three-dimensional.

As a sculptor, I specialize in human portraits and figures. My goal is to create sculpture that is both realistic and emotionally expressive, resulting in a close likeness that conveys the subject’s character. To achieve this, I sculpt from a combination of live models, photographs, and drawings.

To create a bas-relief, I start with a slab of soft clay and make a sketch on the flat surface. Form is sculpted by adding clay and/or cutting into the surface. A range of light and dark values render form, just like shading a drawing. Surfaces that face the light source appear bright; those parallel to the surface appear mid-tone, while those facing away appear dark. Undercuts are used to indicate space behind the flattened object.

When the clay relief has dried as hard as leather, it is hollowed out from the back. It’s then allowed to dry completely and is bisque-fired in an electric kiln. Finally the ceramic relief is given a patina consisting of acrylic paint and colored wax.

Austin sculptor Warren Cullar’s colorful bronze reliefs developed from his lively paintings, Café Scene and Jazz Series. Cullar sculpts the original reliefs in clay, casts them in bronze using the lost wax process, and patinates them in bright colors. Cullar frequently produces several wax casts from his molds and reworks them into new pieces. Recently, Cullar has been working on a series of abstract bas-reliefs on curved surfaces.

Cullar is building an outdoor sculpture garden at his home studio that already contains several large bronze reliefs mounted on exterior walls. With a characteristic twinkle in his eye, Cullar quips, “I do relief because I missed the class about the other side [of the piece].” Cullar can be reached at his Austin studio.

Spicewood sculptor Natasha Downs takes as her inspiration geologic features, such as the limestone cliffs of the Pedernales River near her home. Downs uses a variety of hand-building clay techniques, primarily slab construction. White clay slabs are rolled out and imprinted with a variety of hand-made stamps—her “library” of icons, patterns, and symbols. The slabs are then joined, sometimes paddled, cut, and re-joined or shaped from underneath for added dimension.

The finished piece is wrapped in plastic and dried very slowly to avoid cracking. Once bone-dry, the delicate, brittle slab is carefully loaded into her kiln and fired. Downs then paints the slab, often with many layers of acrylic glaze. The finished work is assembled and mounted for wall hanging. Downs is represented by Riverbend Fine Art Gallery in Marble Falls.

Bas-relief sculpture can be displayed on a wall or a table easel. To produce a fully three-dimensional effect, it is usually best to light the relief from above. This brings out the full range of lights and darks as intended by the sculptor.

ROGERS , L.R. RELIEF SCULPTURE. LONDON: OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, 1974.

Photos courtesy of Arye Shapiro, Warren Cullar, and Natasha Downs.
Arye Shapiro
Warren Cullar
Natasha Downs www.riverbendfineart.com

Shapiro teaches bas-relief sculpture at the Sculpture Academy of Austin and sculpts commissions for private and public clients.