Sculpture is the art of creating three-dimensional forms by carving, modeling, casting, or assembling materials. Unlike a painting that you view from the front, a sculpture exists in space: you can walk around it, see it from different angles, and sometimes even touch it.

Sculptors work with many materials. Michelangelo carved his famous statue of David from a massive block of marble, chipping away everything that wasn't part of his vision. Other sculptors model clay, adding and shaping it with their hands. Some cast sculptures in bronze by pouring molten metal into molds. Modern sculptors might weld metal, carve wood, or even stack found objects into new forms.

Sculptures can be tiny enough to hold in your palm or enormous enough to tower over buildings. They can represent real things, like the horses and riders carved on ancient Greek temples, or abstract ideas expressed through shapes and forms. Some sculptures stand freely in museums or parks, while others, called reliefs, project from walls, like the faces on Mount Rushmore.

The sculptor's challenge is thinking in three dimensions: imagining how light will fall across surfaces, how the work will look from every angle, and how to give solid materials the appearance of life and movement.