Exhibition Review (Artists)

Title – Wild Thing

Gallery – Royal Academy of Art

'A well-made young wolf or some soft-moving bright-eyed wild thing” – The Royal Academy of art has chosen to use Ezra Pound’s vivid and powerful description of the precocious sculptor Henri Gaudier- Brezeska as the name of its exhibition of the three pioneers who entirely changed the course of British modern sculpture. This exhibition which I experienced with my very passion and curiosity to modern sculpture featured spectacular and quintessential work from three talented young stone carvers – Eric Gill, Henri Gaudier and Jacob Epstein.

This exhibition first caught my eyes by the quirky title and the appearance of the name Eric Gill. It is almost universally acknowledged that Gill is one of the most absurd, grotesque and exceptional sculptor in the twentieth century. As Waldemar Januszczak suggested in Sunday Times, he is a ‘ridiculous’ artist and a ‘sick wild thing’. The first piece of work by Gill which deeply attracted me was a snake-hipped, feeble and powerless Christ with the genital of a baby, who seems frightened on the cross. On the side of this piece, Gill also provided a short matching inscription ‘some eunuchs were born from their mother’s womb; some eunuchs were made eunuchs of men; and some eunuchs have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven’s sake.’ This was then translated by Gill as ‘Christ became a eunuch to save us’, which perhaps emphasises ‘it is the thinking of a crackpot’, as Waldemar Januszczak stated. Indeed, what Gill demonstrated through his sculptural work, his grotesque libidinousness to religious art and his frenzied, eccentric behaviour is absolutely bizarre and perhaps not necessarily recognised by most people. Nevertheless, As Richard Dorment indicated in the Telegraph, Gill is ‘the most technically accomplished of these three artists’. In fact, it was Gill’s sensuous, affectionate, and passionate response to the natural world what primarily inspired Gaudier- Brezeska.
Perhaps Gaudier-Brzeska was the least controversial stone carver out of the three of them. It is Gaudier’s extraordinary intelligence and exquisite designs that amazed everyone of us. Personally, I think one of the most powerful and effective work by Gaudier is ‘Bird devouring a Fish’. One on hand, it seems to be based on primarily maquette; one the other hand, it also appears to be directly curved and designed during the process of curving.

Modernism was young. Gaudier was young. And the two of them encountered and exploded into action. Red stone dancer, the fabrication of intellectual brilliance and the superb combination of Aztec geometry and Indian gracefulness, completely reflects the peerless capacity of Gaudier. As the independent stated, ‘It is easy to say of an artist who died at 23 that, had he lived, he would have been the greatest of his cohort; but everything about Gaudier-Brzeska suggests this to be true.’ We look at his Red Stone Dancer and we mourn.

Jacob Epstein, an avant-garde of modern British sculpture, was the leader of the three stone carvers. In fact, both Gaudier-Brezeska and Gill owe their preference for sculpture to the example of Jacob Epstein, who invented the methods in Britain. Unlike Gill, his talent in sculpture was widely recognised. However, his disordered sexual relationships and craziness was criticised by the media, which fortunately, never hurt the young artist.

Rock drill, one of Epstein’s most illustrated masterpieces, is displayed in the centre of the exhibition. As the first representation of a robot in art, rock drill experienced controversy and inevitably faced criticism. As Richard Dorment stated, ‘those who first saw the statues were shocked by what looked to them like a big, aggressive phallic symbol’. Indeed, this masterpiece certainly represents Epstein’s sexual insanity and his quirky imagination. Yet when Epstein’s tremulousness, weirdness, and his talent get into step, the collaboration of these characteristics can be unexpectedly awesome. In my own view, I agree with Waldermar’s view that ‘the Rock Drill is probably the single most inventive piece of sculpture to be made in Britain.’ It is doubtlessly astonishing.

Personally, I think this exhibition is extremely through provoking and tremendously fascinating. As I first entered the exhibition, I glanced at the remarkable and striking ‘Rock Drill’ by Jacob Epstein and immediately I knew that this is not only well advertised but also with intriguing masterpieces, which can be explored in various ways. Throughout the exhibition, the spectacular and exquisite master-pieces, including Epstein’s robotic masterpiece Rock Drill, Gaudier-Brzeska’s innovative carving of Birds Erect, and Gill’s controversial carving of the sexual act Ecstasy completely amazed me and also revealed the impact of these sculptors on modern British sculpture. However, the only flaw that I discovered is the lack of space. In my opinion, these masterpieces should be more spread out to enable the audience to view and appreciate the artists’ work from diverse angles and distance.