Plastic Arts

The term plastic arts refers to art forms that involve the physical manipulation, through modeling or molding, of a pliable medium like clay, wood, or paint. It encompasses sculpture and ceramics but has also been used historically to describe all the visual arts. Though plastic arts predates the use of the word plastic to describe synthetic materials, this exhibition concentrates on that most malleable substance, exploring how artists have used literal plastic from the 1930s to the present. The works here span the early uses of celluloid in animation and of resin in sculpture, the application of fast-drying acrylic in painting, the use of synthetic materials in design, and the incorporation of found plastic objects.

Plastic has long epitomized the speed and convenience of modernity and been attractive for its very plasticity—its ability to be easily shaped or molded. But over time, the increasingly abundant material also became associated with artificiality and cheapness. This exhibition traces plastic’s many manifestations and meanings over time, from modern technological marvel to ubiquitous everyday object, to environmental menace. As the works on view here demonstrate, the historical arc of plastic as an artistic medium closely mirrors the histories of modernism, postmodernism, and their relationship to consumer culture.

Plastic Arts is curated by Patricia Lee Daigle, Ph.D., Chief Curator. It is supported by the Henry Luce Foundation.

All exhibitions at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art are underwritten by the MBMA Exhibition Fund: Lead support provided by Kay Clark, and Maggie and Milton Lovell, with additional funding from Anonymous, Irene and Ron Ayotte, Gloria and Kenneth Boyland, Deborah and Bob Craddock, Susan and James Edelman, Debi and Galen Havner, Sally Hergenrader, James R. Humphreys, Betty and George Johnson, Kristen and Jay Keegan, Valerie and Carl Person, Deborah D. Tipton, Bill Townsend, and the Doris S. and Hubert Kiersky Charitable Remainder Trust.