Taking Shape: Finding Sculpture in the Decorative Arts - Hardcover

"Splendid book. . . This ambitious volume reconsiders the decorative arts more conceptually by focusing on their overlapping aesthetic and functional roles and the blurring of distinctions that was one of the central hallmarks of the rococo style." "New Perspectives on the Eighteenth Century""

While some artworks are more readily labeled as "decorative arts" and others as "sculpture," such objects can exchange and share features. Decorative objects intended for functional or ceremonial use can incorporate sculptural forms or assert a sculptural presence and, conversely, sculpture can perform decoratively, serving an ornamental program or purpose.
Showcased in this book are thirty-eight extraordinary works of decorative art, furniture, and sculpture, that embody such sculptural inventiveness. Drawn from the collections of the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Temple Newsam House, Leeds, England, these pieces will be on exhibit from October 2, 2008, through January 4, 2009, at the Henry Moore Institute, Leeds, and from March 31, 2009, through July 5, 2009, at the J. Paul Getty Museum.