Marble, a natural material that has fascinated artists of all eras.  Timeless and sensual, its qualities  transcend beyond time. Our neolithic ancestors carved it in simple representations of human figure. Those shapes were usually abstract and geometric, with coarse borders due to the rudimentary tools.  

Idol. Third millennia b.C.
Material: alabaster / Measures: 25 x 15 x 3 cm

Aphrodite, First or second century b.C.

 Material: marble / Measures: 158.8 cm - Metropolitan Museum, New York.

That idea of beauty, sober and balanced, remain unchanged through the Academic style of the 19th Century. This can be specially seen in the sculpture exhibited at the Guerrico's Collection Hall at the MNBA. This piece of a woman looking nowhere can be classified as part of the Romantic iconography related to melancholism. The refined approach to the marble by artist Tantardini (Milano, 1829-1879) results in a subtle modulation of the light over the surface. Plus, there's a deep bond between the curvier volumes (hair curls) and the straighter lines (headband). 

La Clarina, by Antonio Carlo Tartadini (c. 1870) - Detail

Material: Marble / Measures: 127 x 61 x 65.5 cm - MNBA (Guerrico's Collection)

Towards the 20th Century, artists look to the past, but paying special attention to the use of materials. Artist Constantin Brancussi is so deeply moved by marble, that he abandons modelling to begin carving such noble stone. 

Brancussi also transmitted this passion to his students, one of which was Isamu Noguchi (1904-1988).

White Prophetess, by Isamu Noguchi (1964)

Material: marble/ Technique: 7.6 x 28.6 x 26 cm

Alberto Giacometti used marble in excess during his Surreal period (desde 1930 a 1935), taking it towards abstraction.

Untitled, byAlberto Giacometti (1931-1932
) 

Material: Marble / Measures: 36.8 x 28.6 x 12.7 cm

With aggression and tenderness, another artist falls for the work in marble: Louise Bourgeois. She describes carving as a conflictive yet passional action: “You hold the chisel and remove the excess aggressively, then you polish what has been carved and meticulously add oil and the result will last more than 30 years. Working with marble oscillates from extreme violence to reparation and the need to be forgiven for having mutilated an element of nature".

The Pinch of the Teaser, by Louise Bourgeois (1996)

Material: pink marble / Measures: 40.6 x 81.3 x 55.9 cm

Jeff Koons uses marble as a way to take over historic tradition: the beauty of the perfect body, which the Greek have taken to its maximum expression. 

Self-portrait, de Jeff Koons
 (1991)

Material: 
Marble / Measures: 95.2 x 52.1 x 36.8 cm

Danilo Dazinger found marble appropiate to faithfully reproduce the southern forests of our country, those that offer elements of nature turned into stone. To the eyes of the artist, those mysterious fossils are natural sculptures and nothing better than another stone to represent them.

Grano de polen de Notophagus - Pumilla (Lenga), by Danilo Danziger

Material: marble / Measures: 50 x 28 x 10 cm

Centro Cultural Recoleta 

Marble is timeless and it's immersed in traditions and cultures as no other stone...

Keep reading... "Marble", Catalog of the exhibition at the  Gagosian Gallery in New York (February-April, 2009). "Descripción de la obra de Danilo Dazinger", by María José Herrera (Centro Cultural Recoleta, Buenos Aires). "El Arte Moderno", by G. Argán, 1998, Ediciones Akal, Madrid, Spain.