Studio: international art (79.1920)

JACOB EPSTEIN: ARTIST-PHILOSOPHER

problem were, perhaps, a fitter subject for
the pen of some discerning student of hard
psychology; nevertheless, I am often left
to wonder how far the general public,
through its susceptibility to suggestion, is
cajoled and hypnotized by the newspaper
critics into believing a work of art to be
good or bad, either in conception or
execution; and how the same public
would regard a given work of art, if left to
itself, without the mediation of the critic.
I am inclined to think that this Christ of
Epstein's would benefit in the public's
eyes, if the critics were not there to
obscure the figure. 0 0 0 0

With the same deliberation, therefore,
that I have chosen the title, I venture to
make the assertion that the author of the
Christ figure is not only the greatest artist
of our age, but that no artist is so integrally
representative of our age. Every great
artist is, of necessity, a philosopher, in the
sense that he is a lover of knowledge, and
strives to express this knowledge in forms
compatible with his art. In Dostoievsky's
sense—“ I philosophize like a poet "—
Epstein is, surely, a philosopher. An
examination of the conditions in which
such a work as the Christ may have been
created will either bear out the assertion
that Epstein is a sculptor-philosopher, or
that he is neither one nor the other ; for
there can be no more foolish assumption
than that a man has produced a great piece
of sculpture without realizing his own
spiritual, poetic—or if you like, philosophic
—conception of his subject. Goethe's
dictum that a great artist is ruled by his
limitations still holds good. A sincere
artist chooses a subject suited to his
technique ; and he suits his technique to
his subject. It is erroneous to suppose—
and it is too late in the day to formulate
such a supposition—that a plastic artist is
necessarily limited by a purely visual
imagination ; if he have thoughts, if he
have emotions, whether they be the result
of actual or of intellectual experience, or of
both, they will surely become a part of the
texture of his art, and inevitably merge in
and become one with his final expression.
Great art is always combination ; it is a
series of relations ; and in so far as the
interrelation is successfully effected, to that
extent is the work a perfect artistic unity.

174

Only when one quantity of the many pre-
dominates or ousts the others does the
work become an artistic failure. There-
fore, in any consideration of the Christ,
among the factors which may be considered
are the following :

The subject : Christ.

The subject's time : after Golgotha.

The artist : Jacob Epstein.

The artist's time : After the Great War.

Here are four leading factors, by no
means all, which require looking into, first
of all separately; then, whether the
finished work of art embodies them in a
harmonious unit. Criticism demands of a
work of this kind, character, truth, tradi-
tional values ; and although it asks for a
faithful interpretation which will satisfy
the historical sense, it also wants this
interpretation to synchronize with our own
time. Again, while it must be satisfied
that the subject is Christ, it will not remain
content with that, but desires that this
work shall be expressed through the per-
sonal temperament of the artist. A. careful
study of these factors should convince any
one that an artistic conception of a his-

“ LILLIAN SHELLEY ”
BY JACOB EPSTEIN