Talk: Wild Thing: Sculptors in Revolt, the Reynolds Room, Royal Academy of Arts, London, October 26 2009
Wild Thing, the Autumn show at the Royal Academy, chronicles the radical impact three sculptors had in transforming a stagnant period of British art between 1904 and 1915, exploring the influence of Jacob Epstein, Henri Gaudier-Brzeska and Eric Gill.
The disparate confluence of the trio is certainly academically perplexing – Epstein was the son of a Polish Jewish refugee from New York's Lower East side, while Gaudier-Brzeska, the son of an Orléans joiner, moved to London from Paris in 1911.
Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, Red Stone Dancer (circa 1913). Red Mansfield stone. © Tate, London 2009
For his part, Gill converted to Catholicism in 1913 and claimed it was "high time to create works of art to destroy the morality which is corrupting us all" after being brought up as the son of a Brighton clergyman who belonged to a sect of Calvinist Ministers.
Between them, according to Exhibition Curator Dr Richard Cork, the triumvirate embarked on a mission to "rescue sculpture from the grave" and create the moment in time when sculpture in Britain became modern.
The 90-work collection is the first time all three have been critiqued in an exhibition, under a title taken from American poet Ezra Pound's description of his first meeting with Brzeska in 1913.
Cork sees the retrospective as the first step in a timeline leading straight to the current strong domestic sculptural scene. "British sculpture has never been more vital and varied and more powerful than it is right now," he says.
"We have the most extraordinary range of sculptors working in Britain, right from Sir Anthony Caro, at one end of the spectrum in his 80s, to the middle generation – Anish Kapoor, Anthony Gormley and Richard Long.
"It's good to put what's happening right now into perspective by finding out where it all began."
Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, Birds Erect (1914). Limestone. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of Mrs W Murray Crane (1945) © 2009. Digital image, The Museum of Modern Art, New York and Scala, Florence
The artists themselves are quick to acknowledge this. "It makes everybody more aware of the roots contemporary sculpture has," explains Cork.
"For example, I was talking to Antony Gormley recently and he said that as far as he was concerned, the Angel of the North can be directly traced back to Epstein's Rock Drill.
"That makes us look at the Angel of the North in a different kind of way, which is very stimulating."
Eric Gill, Mother and Child – half length (1913). Bath stone. Private collection. Roy Fox, © Estate of Eric Gill / Bridgeman Art Library
Cork proposed the exhibition to the RAA with co-curator Adrian Locke in 2006, but the pair were "astonished" when organisations offered them some of the most iconic sculptures in history. Yale University and Art Gallery offered Epstein's eight-foot Venus sculpture, which hadn't travelled to England since 1917.
Artistically united by their interest in "direct carving" and "life inherent in stone", the artists' singular oeuvre was greeted with disparaging irreverence by art establishments. The press of the time portrayed their efforts as abominations produced by bohemian enfant terribles, perhaps making them the Damien Hirsts of their time.
Works by Gill and Epstein were frequently imbued with sexual and erotic connotations, offending public morality, religious beliefs and more.
Jacob Epstein, Torso in Metal from The Rock Drill (1913-14). Bronze. © Tate, London 2009, the estate of Sir Jacob Epstein
Despite vehement social and institutional rejection, their committed raison d’être was to reinvigorate sculpture with reckonable force, as prior to this, the form was perceived as being subservient to painting.
In June 1908, the year after Epstein was accused of making "pornography", his external sculpture facade attracted national headlines in the Evening Standard because of his use of semi-naked bodies, which were seen as depraved, lacking lustre and obstructive to the correct mores of society.
Rock Drill was derided by critics. Its semi-mechanistic, distorted torso is spectacularly mounted on tripod legs, with a rib structure rarely seen anywhere in the world before, let alone by a British audience.
Jacob Epstein, Venus, second version (circa 1914-16). Marble. Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven. Gift of Winston FC Guest, 1927. © The estate of Sir Jacob Epstein
Following public criticism, and possibly due to financial need, Epstein removed its arms and legs, sold the tripod and cast the remaining torso in bronze to create a scaled-down version.
Other discursive works on display include Gill’s Roland for an Oliver and Joie de Vivre, (1910).
The latter has a symbolic style similar to Indian temple art, and had to be stored because its overtly erotic subject nature was considered unsuitable for the British Christian public.
Eric Gill, A Roland for an Oliver / Joie de Vivre (1910). Hoptonwood stone bas relief with added colour. The University of Hull Art Collection, Mike Park. © Estate of Eric Gill / Bridgeman Art Library
The advancement of a new abstraction of language by Brzeska is portrayed in Redstone Dancer, which pushed sculptural language to a new, energetically expressive form.
Epstein's Birds Erect, lent by New York's Museum of Modern Art, synthesises abstract images. Other works of controversy include the Tomb of Oscar Wilde, which was initially covered up when it appeared in the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.
The nakedness of the sculpture prompted a gilt fig leaf to be designed, and enraged members of the public later vandalised the figure.
Forthcoming exhibition talks:
Jacob Epstein and the Significance of Rock Drill
Ann Christopher and Ken Cook discuss their reconstruction of Rock Drill for the Hayward Gallery exhibition, Vorticism and its Allies, in 1974. The Reynolds Room, November 13, 6.30pm-7.30pm. Tickets £6-£14.
Those Damn Greeks – Gaudier- Brzeska's Rhetoric and the Reality of Modernist Sculpture
Dr Evelyn Silber, Honorary Professorial Research Fellow at the University of Glasgow. The Reynolds Room, November 16, 1pm-2pm. Tickets sold out.
Saint or Sinner? Reassessing Eric Gill
Fiona MacCarthy discusses the effect of biographical revelations on the sculptor and craftsman’s long-term reputation. November 20 2009, 6.30pm-7.30pm.
All talks held in the Reynolds Room at the Royal Academy. Call 020 7300 5839 or visit the RAA online to book.
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