The wild west recreated – in paper

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Sarah Lawson discovers a new medium for sculpture

When you first see the figures sculpted by Allan and Patty Eckman you can’t be sure of the medium.   Is it plaster? Is it some fine-textured white stone? The detail is astonishing. The Eckmans seem to choose subjects with a maximum amount of fluffy textures: grass, feathers, animal fur, buckskin fringe, or flower petals, and you can see every blade of grass, every hair, every barb of a feather. Sculptures they may be, but static they are not. Besides the standing Amerindian figures, there are action groups of, for example, a Sioux on his Appaloosaat full gallop taking aim with his bow and arrow at a Great Plains buffalo, also at full gallop.

But what can these precise figures be made of? Would you believe paper?   Nonetheless, you must not imagine some delicate origami-like construction; this is real sculpture, and the material behaves more like wood or leather. The medium is archive-quality paper (that is, without any acid content), and after it is mixed in a ‘hydro-pulper’ and put into a silicone rubber mould, the water is extracted. If this sounds like fancy papier mâché we are told that it does not resemble that at all, but is something entirely different, produced using a technique that the Eckmans have patented. This appears to be, if not exactly a new art form, at least a new medium for art. Another secret process enables a bronze cast to be made of the paper sculpture without destroying or harming the paper original.

I first saw pictures of these sculptures when a friend sent me an email full of them. The images were larger than the website miniatures and I gazed at them first with interest and then with amazement.  Many months later a similar email came around from another friend, and then my curiosity drove me to the Eckmans’ website.

Some of these paper sculptures are held by art museums and private collectors, and some of the choice examples are also available as posters or prints from the Eckmans’ website. Like an art gallery on one’s own computer, this website displays a number of Allen and Patty Eckman’s works, and even as small images they are breathtaking.

The object of the exercise is to portray the figures in the minutest detail. When the dried paper cast comes out of the mould the sculptors work the material further, meticulously carving the details that, taken together, make the figures so remarkable. The Eckmans report on their website that they met at art school and then ran an advertising agency in California before moving to South Dakota and embarking on an entirely new venture, Eckman Fine Art. Allen, who has some Cherokee ancestors, is particularly interested in ‘the Indian’s materials, physical and spiritual culture and that whole period of our nation’s history’ of westward expansion and the Civil War. Patty, for her part, also specializes in American Indian figures, with a concentration on women and children, and on birds and flowers. Her depiction of a hummingbird is among the smaller sculptures while also life size. Most of the other sculptures are one-quarter or one-sixth life size. Some of the larger sculptures are such joint efforts that both artists sign the finished work.

The Eckmans didn’t exactly invent paper sculpture (Allan saw Mexican originals when he was doing a photo shoot), but they have certainly taken it to new heights. For all the secret procedures and patented techniques, the Eckman Method of cast paper sculpture is generously taught to other artists using Project Lessons and a variety of DVDs. ‘Allan and Patty Eckman have developed all these so artists can achieve the same results as they do’, they say, but, looking at the pictures, it is pretty clear that there is more to it than knowing how to cast paper, using whatever esoteric method. As in any other art form, the finishing touches make all the difference. In this case the difference is between the Indian chief in recognizable buckskin and feathers and the chief come to life in all the tangible texture of his clothing and ornaments.

The Eckman website is a public art gallery but of a frustrating but unavoidably small size (unless your monitor is a lot bigger than mine). Even so, the sheer detail of the figures is astounding. The clothing of the Plains Indians is rendered down to the last thread and thong. The feathered headdresses ripple in a breeze we can almost feel; every hair of the horse’s mane has a life of its own; the prairie grass underfoot is of grazing quality. There is no influence of Rodin here; there is not the least influence of Brancusi; look for it instead from Frederic Remington (1861–1909) with his oil paintings of full-tilt cowboys.

The figures may stand upright, but the images are staggering!