International studio (80.1925)

inCSRHAClOnAL

of its conception, the relation of the artist to the the forms it encloses, even as his chisel, which has
materials of his craft, these in turn are in part tooled surfaces to an exquisite texture, seems
explained by the history of the man himself, rather to have caressed than carved them.
Laurent had a craftsman's training; in place of But the best approach of all to Laurent is
attending the Beaux Arts, he received his training through his plants. Here his imagination has full
in the shop of a Roman frame-maker and the rein. Playful, sensuous, his line encloses forms
result is most clearly evident. If one studies his that are at once charmingly inventive and instinct
work one is at once conscious of a quality which with life. The inward protective curl of a leaf, the
differentiates it from swelling of a bud, the

f I a m e I i k e upward
shoot of tall grasses—
his wood renders these
with proud fidelity.

One is so moved to
admiration by the bril-
liant use of the simple
means which Laurent
employs that one is
liable to forget how
simple they really are.
Line, spacial distribu-
tion and color are so
satisfying in his hands
that one hardly no-
tices the absence of
volume; an exquisite
texture compensates
for planal structure.
Yet—with the foun-
dations so well laid, if
he would only press ft
further—he has shown
time and again that he
can—beyond the deco-

the general run of
modern sculpture. It
is less a question of
excellence of achieve-
ment than of the angle
of approach.

If you will examine
the illustrations you
will readily see that in
Laurent's work, not
only in the bas-reliefs,
where the medium im-
poses the rectangular
convention, but in
such a work as the
marble "Mother and
Child," where freedom
is possible, the em-
phasis is most strongly
on the material. A
frame, however richly
it be carved, must re-
main a frame. In the
same way, a block of
marble in Laurent's

ii y i-r "PLANT" (WOOD) BY ROBERT LAURENT

hands, whatever lite . rative into the plastic.

... In tbe collection oj Mrs. Russell Loines T .

he may impart to it, 1 am tempted to

retains proudly its identity. But here enters his divide Laurent's work into two parts, the first

imaginative sympathy, coaxing shapes out of the comprising the majority of the bas-reliefs and

block, drawing out of the very depths of the wood figures, in which his invention is.felt to be

block's nature unsuspected life and vigor. The the prime factor; the second comprising his works

block remains master, as a man is master in his in the round and his figures in marble and

own house; compactness and solidity are granted, alabaster, where invention must give place to

identity is inviolate. But in return it must yield more purely formal qualities. And I am inclined

its fullest capacity for largeness and freedom of to think that in the long run he will have to choose

movement. between the two. He can either be a decorator in

In the bas-reliefs the paradox of freedom and the tradition of Jean Goujon; or he can devote

restraint is felt yet more strongly. Along with a himself wholly to sculpture. But if he chooses

precision that is the result of a craftsman's train- sculpture, he must remember that architectural

ing is a joyous, most sensuous swing of line, rightness is not enough. One must be able to feel

Within the rigid bounds that he sets himself no in the smallest fragment of the structure the same

one can play more delightfully than Laurent. life that informed and conditioned the whole. One

Every time that I Return to his reliefs I am filled must be able to smash a statue into a hundred

with admiration for the ease with which he con- pieces and feel each piece alive. And that de-

trives, by his superb distribution of area and use mands, beyond the richest imaginative and formal

of color accent, to fill his panel. His line, pure, gifts, an enormous amount of sustained intellec-

Iyrical and relatively unaccented, seems to caress tual concentration.

jour forty-Jour

MARCH I925