Synopsis
I feel that I can do the best, most profound things and life is short. How I wish I was living in an age when man wanted to raise temples to man or God or the Devil. Jacob Epstein was thirty when he wrote these impassioned words. Now recognized as a seminal figure in the history of twentieth-century art, his powerful and often explicit sculptures, monumental in scale, were hailed as the work of a genius by a few contemporary figures such as Ezra Pound and Augustus John, but produced hostility and censoriousness from the art establishment. His is a true rags-to-riches story. Epstein was born in 1880 in the Jewish Ghetto of New York but emigrated to Europe to live a bohemian life, with a wife and several mistresses in a domestic menage. By the time of his death in 1959 he had met almost everybody of importance in the art world and many in political and other spheres. He endured public scandals caused by the nudity of his so-called Strand Statues (1907-1908; destroyed 1937) and the debauched-looking angel on his 1912 memorial for Oscar Wilde, but in 1946 he modeled the portrait of Sir Winston Churchill and was himself knighted in 1954. It is a comment on changing tastes that Epstein's magnificent carving in alabaster, "Jacob and the Angel," once refused by the Tate Gallery, now stands in the Central Sculpture Hall of Tate Britain. His sculpture, drawing, and other work are to be found in museums and art galleries all over the world. Daemons and Angels, the first biography in fifty years of this controversial sculptor, features black-and-white photographs throughout.
Reviews
Like many artists, the sculptor Jacob Epstein (1880-1959) was a potpourri of contradictions. Born in America, he lived most of his adult life in England. He was reviled in the popular press for his controversial early work (such as the debauched angel created to adorn the Paris tomb of Oscar Wilde), but he was knighted in 1954, near the end of his life. Finally, though he was born and raised Jewish, he created some of the most powerful Christian imagery of the 20th century. The author of a number of biographies, including one on Epstein's contemporary and friend Amedeo Modigliani (Modigliani: The Pure Bohemian), Rose has compiled a solid and often compelling work that strikes an excellent balance between the artist's work and his tempestuous and confusing personal life (a truly bohemian stew of wives, mistresses, models, children, and dogs). Though Epstein had created portraits throughout his career, in his later years he became the sculptor of choice for many of the world's most famous names. Among those who sat for him at the height of his popularity were writers T.S. Eliot and W. Somerset Maugham, Winston Churchill, India's Prime Minister Nehru, and the actress Gina Lollobrigida. Rose provides insightful commentary on the relationships between Epstein and his varied clients. Highly recommended for larger collections of 20th-century art. Martin R. Kalfatovic, Smithsonian Institution Libs., Washington, DC
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Although American-born Epstein was a brilliant and much sought-after portraitist, creating dramatic busts of luminaries such as Joseph Conrad and Albert Einstein, his radical stone sculptures of "angelic and demonic forces" were so controversial in England, his adopted home, that he "attracted more insults and brutal attacks" than any of his contemporaries. Yet, in spite of continual front-page outrage driven by prudery--Epstein's work embodied his fascination with sex and procreation--and anti-Semitism, Epstein was nearly forgotten after his death in 1959 at age 79. Rose, a gracious and compelling biographer who has also written about Modigliani and Suzanne Valadon, remedies that neglect with an astute chronicle of Epstein's multifaceted life and accomplishments. As spiritual as he was carnal, as influenced by Whitman and African art as by the Bible, Epstein, always short on funds but rich in the love of remarkable women, realized his artistic dreams only to see his masterpieces defaced and displayed as sideshow attractions. But, as Rose reveals, adversity fueled his creative fire, and Epstein will be remembered as the gifted visionary he truly was. Donna Seaman
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