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Jacob Epstein's London Jacob Epstein’s London The sculptor’s legacy 50 years after his death 5 Jacob Epstein (who died on 6 Field Marshal Smuts, August 19 1959) was one of the 1 Parliament Square, greatest British sculptors of Westminster (1956) the twentieth century. He was Like an ice skater, hands clasped also the most controversial. firmly behind his back, the former His sculptures have been South African prime minister Jan decapitated, castrated, covered in Christian Smuts cuts a thrusting paint and tarred and feathered. figure. Smuts was a controversial ‘He took the brickbats,’ said subject – soldier, statesman and Henry Moore, ‘and he scholar, he was seen as a ground- took them first.’ 2 4 breaking humanitarian for his role Graham Barker in establishing the League of scours London for Nations, but he advocated racial his finest works. segregation and opposed black enfranchisement. Nelson Mandela, 1 BMA, now arms aloft, now attracts more Zimbabwe House, attention in the opposite corner. Strand (1908) On the junction with 6 ‘Pietà’, Congress House, Agar Street you’ll see Great Russell Street, a macabre spectacle: Bloomsbury (1957) 18 mutilated naked Speak nicely to the receptionists at figures in niches Congress House and around Zimbabwe House. 5 3 they’ll let you sneak Epstein was a daring choice as into the café to marvel sculptor for the British Medical at Epstein’s ‘Pietà’ Association headquarters. His across the courtyard. ‘Ages of Man’ figures were more Stark and square, the than Edwardian London could towering mother bear. Here were statues that ‘no figure grows out of the careful father would wish his stone plinth, the figure daughter… to see’, warned the of her lifeless son Evening Standard. Some 29 years draped in her arms. As later the genitalia, heads and a war memorial for the limbs were hacked off by the TUC headquarters, building’s new owners, allegedly ‘This is neither a after a penis fell from above and 7 tribute to military valour nor even a injured a passer-by. symbol of grief,’ says art historian Dr Evelyn Silber, ‘but more an 2 ‘Rima’, WH Hudson of St James’s Park tube. This art indictment of the pitiless Memorial, Hyde Park (1925) deco office block – London’s first indifference of war.’ North of the Serpentine is a ‘skyscraper’ – was London wildlife garden dedicated to Transport’s headquarters. 7 ‘Woman Taking Off Her Dress’, naturalist WH Hudson. Placed Architect Charles Holden insisted Roper’s Garden, Chelsea centrally is Epstein’s stone relief on its sculptures being carved (unveiled 1972) of Rima, the bare-breasted in situ ‘to preserve all the virility Here you’re literally standing in nature-spirit heroine of Hudson’s and adventure brought into play 4 ‘Madonna and Child’, Epstein’s footsteps, on the site of his book ‘Green Mansions’. It was with every cut of the chisel’. Dean’s Mews, off Cavendish studio from 1909-1914. At the dubbed the ‘Hyde Park Atrocity’. Holden might have got more Square (1953) eastern end of this sunken garden Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin virility and adventure than he’d Sculpted in lead and suspended on the Embankment, sheltering by was ‘visibly shocked’ as he bargained for. Critics argued that over a mews arch between two Chelsea Old Church, sits one of his unveiled it, questions were these were obscene pagan deities neo-Palladian buildings, this simple stone reliefs. Pitted with asked in Parliament, the Royal and found undertones of graceful mother and child chisel marks and unfinished, it Academy president campaigned paedophilia in the ponderous man celebrates the former site of the depicts a plump primitive female for its removal and it was looming behind the naked child. Convent of the Holy Child Jesus. figure battling forward, legs bent, vandalised with green paint. On Guy Fawkes Night, 2,000 The nuns were initially alarmed arm across her face. Its alternative Thankfully George Bernard Shaw students rallied in protest, and when they heard Epstein was title of ‘A Woman Walking Against and others rallied to its defence. later a gang tarred and feathered involved, but his Madonna and the Wind’ captures the essence of the sculptures. To quell the Child shows he could bring the piece most vividly. 3 ‘Day’ and ‘Night’, uproar, Epstein truncated the freshness and warmth to a More Epstein sculptures can be seen 55 Broadway, St James’s (1928) child’s penis. But he had to wait traditional theme. Nikolaus at the National Portrait Gallery Peer up at the brooding figures of another 25 years for his next Pevsner approved of how it (bust of TS Eliot) and Tate Modern ‘Day’ and ‘Night’ over the entrance public commission in London. ‘broods in great stillness’. (‘Rock Drill’). ‘Whenever I see a pigeon on the tube I want to barbecue it.’ ‘Orinoco doesn’t flow – he’s a Womble.’ www.themanwhofellasleep.com 8 www.timeout.com/london August 13 – 19 2009.
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