Milton Horn - in His Own Words

In His Own Words

On the Nature of Sculpture by Milton Horn

The function of sculpture is not to decorate but to integrate, not to entertain but to orientate man within the context of his universe.

Sculpture inhabits actual space in all its dimensions, and by its own inherent structural logic is able to impress upon our imagination a sense of reality. Whether it be an integral part of an architectural structure or free standing in architectural space or among nature's forms its sets up an inter-relationship between itself and its surroundings. Like life its myriad views assume new aspects under varying conditions; like life it is capable of drawing upon itself new interpretations and transcending them. Since it lives in actual space it interacts with it, measures it and is measured by it. The structure, the density or the translucency of the material, the specific life the work is to live, the rhythms of the time, which engulf the sculptor, join in the interaction and set up relationships that exist between the component. parts of the work and the whole, between the whole and its surroundings.

Sculpture is not an ersatz for man, beast, bird or any of these put together arbitrarily. Though it draws from nature structural principles, its functions are as totally different as its materials are. Transcending their physical properties, within the realm of our imagination, sculptured forms assume an aspect of the inter- dependence of all in the making of the ONE.

Sculpture is composed of concrete material interacting with thought, thought which draws its nourishment from experience with form. When concrete material and thought interact with space the resultant forms, in one way or another, recall either nature's forms or formalized aspects of nature's forms. Though sculptured forms live totally different lives from the motifs which they resemble, there is no such thing as non-representational, three dimensional form, and yet sculpture by its very nature is an abstraction. Like architecture it is an organic abstraction in concrete form. When sculpture is wed to the architectural structure or wed to nature's forms and the topography of the site - sculpture wed to any or all of these performs the function of integrating man spiritually to his universe. Olivet College, 1948

Quoted from Milton Horn, Sculptor, see references section