YOU CALL THAT ART?!

A brief history of modern sculpture, packaged with sturdy cardboard sheets of die-cut pieces that can be assembled into abstract…assemblages.

Alas, with this well-meaning work, Carter and Diaz prove that they should stick to the paper engineering for which they are both justly renowned. They start with a patchwork survey of Old World and African sculpture from prehistory to the turn of the 20th century and then introduce 10 “modern” sculptors (all of whom have been dead 25 years or more) in biographical sketches. The text throughout is weighted down with name-check references to other dead artists and art movements of the past along with mentions of important works that are not among the ones illustrated. The punch-out pieces in the accompanying box can be assembled into six sophisticated original abstracts without scissors or glue, but they have no evident stylistic connections to the work of the 10 profiled artists. Though the models come with explicit instructions for preferred assembly, the authors do include a few unlabeled pieces that can be slotted in where desired. But a dismissive cover claim that the models are similar to the preliminary “maquettes” that practicing sculptors sometimes make isn’t likely to provide young experimenters with much in the way of motivation.

A poorly conceived art box that’s more likely to stifle any creative impulse than nurture it.