Larger Than Life: The Power of Monumental Sculptures

Do you feel them towering over you, demanding your attention? You may find some are breathtaking, others bizarre, even intimidating, but one thing is certain: big sculptures never go unnoticed. Moving around it, look at it from different angles, absorbing its presence in a way that two-dimensional art simply cannot replicate. The sheer scale of these works forces the viewer into an intimate dance. These Grandiose creations carry emotional weight, from, initially, their size before we even think about their meaning; they do not merely exist within a space, they command it. Read more in Larger Than Life: The Power of Monumental Sculptures

Image on the left from Manolo Valdés’ The Library exhibition

You may have noticed the giant, rusty sculpture standing as a guardian over Northern England. What is it? It’s the ‘Angel of the North’, an artwork that was met with criticism and even hatred when first conceived, only to become one of the most beloved and iconic landmarks in the country.

Antony Gormley’s giant work is a sculpture with rust-red wings stretching across the English landscape, standing guard against the skyline. More than a sculpture, it is a landmark, a symbol of resilience and transformation. Gormley’s work often focuses on the human form, but when scaled to monumental proportions, his figures transcend individual representation, becoming guardians of both place and time.

Antony Gormley’s Angel of the North

Ok then, a spoon, a cherry, and maybe a touch of magic? Does that call out to you as a piece of art? Maybe not. So consider the playful grandeur of Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen’s work. Their ‘Spoonbridge and Cherry’, a giant spoon cradling a gleaming red cherry, turns an everyday object into something whimsical.

Unlike traditional monumental sculptures that invoke awe through their weight and seriousness, Oldenburg and van Bruggen invite us to experience the world through a moment of humor and joy. Their large-scale art allows monumental creations not always to be imposing; they can be joyous, absurd, and profoundly human. They can just be fun to engage with.

Claes Oldenburg & Coosje van Bruggen’s Spoonbridge and Cherry

How does it feel to walk between something so unyielding as steel? Like wandering through a garden maze, but forged from cold, solid metal. Richard Serra offers a striking contrast with his vast, weathered steel sculptures,  ‘The Matter of Time’. These works demand interaction. Walk through them, and potentially feel dwarfed by their presence. Maybe have your sense of direction altered, creating a feeling of hyper-awareness of the body. Serra’s sculptures transform from static objects into immersive experiences, where space and movement become just as significant as the work itself.

Richard Serra’s Tilted Spheres in Toronto Pearson Airport

Is it okay to feel fear or unease when faced with a giant piece of art, even when it sits comfortably in a public city space? A mother, a monster, a long-legged creature from a nightmare. Artist Louise Bourgeois’s ‘Maman’, monumentality takes on a different emotional tone. The giant spider, with impossibly thin legs that seem to defy physics, evokes both terror and tenderness. It represents the strength and complexity of motherhood. The sculpture, alive with emotion, triggering powerful, instinctual responses like awe or unease, as though it might scuttle away at any moment.

Louise Bourgeois’ Maman at the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa

Does art make you think? Is that part of its Raison d’être? Maybe you want to know what a thought looks like when made into a piece of art? Auguste Rodin’s  ‘The Thinker’ captures a different kind of monumental stillness. This piece doesn’t call for movement, but its size amplifies the deep contemplation of the seated figure. In its grandeur, it becomes more than just a man thinking; it is thought itself made tangible. What might have been an ordinary piece in smaller form transforms into an icon because of its size.

Auguste Rodin’s The Thinker  – Le Penseur

Would it feel strange to see pores, wrinkles, and skin up close, from something so massive? Ron Mueck’s hyperrealistic sculptures challenge our perceptions of scale and human proportions. His exaggerated figures, whether oversized or shrunken, confront us with unsettling realism. When standing before one of his giant heads, the smallest details, like wrinkles or pores, become overwhelming, forcing us to confront an uncanny, lifelike world.(below left)

Ron Mueck’s In Bed & Jaume Plensa’s El Alma del Ebro

What makes Jaume Plensa’s (above right) art unique is how it’s crafted from letters, not just any letters, but characters from different alphabets and languages. Jaume Plensa’s colossal heads and ethereal figures introduce a sense of serenity to monumental sculpture. His elongated faces, often with closed eyes, invite introspection. From different angles, they seem to shift and change, creating a sense of imperfection and otherworldliness that invites contemplation.

In architecture, the scale of a structure can also alter our perception of space. Thomas Heatherwick’s ‘Vessel’ in New York goes beyond being a simple building; it is an interactive sculpture. Its honeycomb-like design allows visitors to explore and experience the city from varying perspectives, transforming the act of looking into an art form.

Thomas Heatherwick’s Vessel

Yet what if a sculpture could disappear into the earth? Walking Artist Richard Long’s works bridge sculpture and nature. Unlike Serra’s industrial steel or Plensa’s smooth surfaces, Long’s works engage with the landscape itself. Red Rock Circle is not just a sculpture but a dialogue with the earth, using raw materials to create patterns that feel both ancient and fleeting. Long’s pieces remind us that sometimes, monumentality lies not in towering height but in the vastness of the land and the physical journey involved in creating them.

Richard Long’s South Bank Circle

Just like Long, there’s another sculptor who works closely with nature in his art. In Voice of Silence, on view at Friedman Benda in New York, Choi Byung Hoon invites us into a world where material and meaning merge, where stone and wood are not just sculpted but listened to. His pieces are not declarations but quiet meditations on time, on nature, and on the delicate balance between intervention and restraint.

Beyond the gallery walls, his monumental stone sculptures, often placed in remote landscapes, seem as if they have always belonged there, shaped not just by his hand but by centuries of wind and rain. In this exhibition, that same sense of timelessness is distilled into works that feel both ancient and impossibly modern.

Sculpture by Choi Byung Hoon

Throughout history, monumental sculptures have symbolized power and divinity. Michelangelo’s David, embodies human beauty and strength, while Bernini’s Apollo and Daphne, captures the fluid transformation of flesh to laurel. Both works reveal how scale and craftsmanship can turn marble into something transcendent.

Sculpture has always reflected the spirit of its time. Where older works often sought to glorify gods and heroes in marble and bronze, contemporary sculptures explore new materials and abstract forms to question identity and space. Yet, across centuries, the power of scale and presence remains unchanged.

Manolo Valdés’ current ‘The Library’ exhibition at Opera Gallery in London takes this idea of scale and intellectual engagement even further. Known for modern reimaginings of art history, Valdés’ Librería series turns bookshelves into sculptural forms that symbolize knowledge and memory. Just as Serra’s steel structures redefine space and Bourgeois’s spider evokes raw emotion, Valdés’s sculptures invite us to reflect on the weight of history itself, both literally and metaphorically.

Manolo Valdés and his sculptures

British-Iraqi artist Emii Alrai brings her monumental sculptural world to Compton Verney, a historic country house and art gallery in the heart of Warwickshire. Her exhibition, River of Black Stone, draws on ancient mythologies, oral histories, and archaeological artifacts, with large-scale installations that seem to erupt from the earth itself. Alrai’s works unfold across immersive, sensory spaces. Both raw and poetic, her sculptures channel the weight of history, transforming metal and stone into something almost ancient yet undeniably alive.

Emii Alrai The High Dam installation – Photography by Jules Lister

Monumental art changes the way we move, the way we see, and the way we think. In the presence of these grand works, we are reminded that art is not just something we look at but something we experience. The sheer scale of these sculptures stops us in our tracks, overwhelming us with their physical presence. It is precisely this vastness that allows us to feel emotionally connected to the work, as if standing before something greater than ourselves. And in that experience, we find ourselves transformed.

See Choi Byung Hoon’s exhibition at Friedman Benda in New York from 27 March – 23 May, 2025. Find out more at: FriedmanBenda.com

See Manolo Valdés – The Library at the Opera Gallery from 13 February – 20 March, 2025. Find out more at: OperaGallery.com

See Emii Alrai’s – River of Black Stone at Compton Verney from 15 February – 15 June 2025. Find out more at: ComptonVerney.org.uk

If you liked reading Larger Than Life: The Power of Monumental Sculptures then why not read Music: Songs That Carry the Challenges of the World ?

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