WHEN Florentine Sculptor Benvenuto Cellini sought to perfect the rediscovered art of bronze casting in the 16th century, he kept the furnace roaring for days and finally set the roof on fire. Now when a fire breaks out in a sculptor's studio, it is more likely to be caused by an unwatched oxyacetylene torch. The material may still be bronze, but there is an added glitter of stainless steel, phosphor or chrome. The great difference is that Cellini produced in bronze a famous Perseus; today's sculptors too often end up with a glittering space divider or macabre wall hanging. Startling and even elegant as such modern objects can be (see color pages), they tend more to snag the imagination like an unexpected piece of barbed wire than hold the eye transfixed in admiration and awe.
But artists have never been asked to do more than reflect the time in which they live. By this standard a selection of 79 works (priced from $75 to $22,000) by 66 U.S. artists (two-thirds under 40) now on display at Manhattan's Museum of Modern Art makes a lively commentary on the present state of modern man's concerns and anxieties as well as his changing view of beauty. The broad selection chosen from some 700 entries underlines another fact: whether today's sculpture starts off as junk and ends up as art. or the other way around, there is a lot of it. Says Art Critic James Thrall Soby (who served on the selection committee ): "I think no fair-minded person can look at the present show and not realize that a spark has ignited our younger sculptors, whether they carve or cast their works, weld them or convert into estimable jewels the wry tiaras of the junkyard."
Radiant Centers. Today's sculptors can be roughly divided into two categories: those who take their clues from the materials they are working and the others who start with an image, then shape materials to embody their vision. The richly decorative materials-first approach is handsomely demonstrated in one whole red-walled gallery at the museum's show. There Italian-born Harry Bertoia's Wall Piece ($750) melds steel, bronze and phosphor into an elegant decoration. Bertoia makes no claim for it beyond stating he considers it "a few squares arranged in a quiet way around a stand." His Flower ($900) proves he can do a welded screen in the round. It also happens to be more personal: "I had just returned from Italy and was feeling wonderful. The essential feeling I was trying for was to begin at the center and radiate out.''
Web Tree ($475) by Hawaiian-born Abe Satoru and Missouri-born Carlus Dyer's Scintillation of Elements ($3,200) both vaguely recall nature in the form of tree or cactus. As sculpture, they aim to catch and diffuse light; at the same time they are as open and transparent as the skeleton skyscrapers or factories that modern man sees all about him. A sub division of the materials-first group is made up of those who derive their inspiration from the swirling intricacies of mathematical forms. Typical of these is the brass Column ($900) by Greek-born Stephanie Scuris, who assembles rods more handsomely than any TV aerial manufacturer has yet managed to do.