Posts

Showing posts from January, 2010

“Wild Thing” (Jacob Epstein et al.) Sackler Wing, Royal Academy

Image
REVIEW BY CORAL BOWER Ezra Pound in 1913 likened the young French sculptor Henri Gaudier-Brzeska to “a well made young wolf or some soft moving, bright eyed wild thing.” At the Academie Julian, Paris, Jacob Epstein was referred to by his teacher as “ce sauvage Americain”. Eric Gill’s clergyman father introduced him to the cultures of non European civilization at an early age ( the Calvinist Methodist had been a Missionary in the South Seas). But the image of the Eye of God, in the breakfast room for the thirteen children had the inscription “Thou God seest me” and had a strong influence on the eldect son, Eric. Both Epstein and Gill had to come to terms with sexual drives in conflict with orthodox Judaism. This would be a fertile pre-condition for artistic expression. Sophie Brzeska agreed to live with her friend on the condition that their relationship was platonic, which might also produce those fertile conditions. The men met in London bringing ideas and influences from Paris. Par