THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.

28 December 1913

(page 3)

‘SANITY’ TO REIGN AT ART EXHIBITION.

Art matters hold their tranquil course in Philadelphia unaffected by the heaving movements in foreign cities. The approaching event of the season, the Academy’s annual, will mark the climax of activity, but the fleeting promise of something different . . .

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When it comes to the realm of living men the show is pretentious and exasperating. The one fine thing in the room is Jacob Epstein's “Group of Birds.” Epstein, by the way, has a small exhibition in the Twenty-one Gallery, Adelphi Terrace. There is nothing here so interesting as the group of birds. Epstein may be seen in all his vigor in London. Of his early work there are the figures upon the building of the British Medical Society in the Strand. These are handsome and distinguished in their freedom and in their absolute adaptability to the uses of architecture.

Again we may study this talented sculptor in his hasty decoration for the “Camaret,” a little choice spot of Regent street, where the elect may go in the late evening to talk, to refresh and to see popular dancing.

There was a revival of interest in Epstein’s handsome monument to Oscar Wilde in the Pere Lachaise Cemetery in Paris on Guy Fawkes day, when a certain Irish poet, Alister [sic] Crowley, tore the drapery from the stone. Of course, it was immediately put back, but Crowley felt better, especially as at this time his little essay upon “Art in America” was appearing in the current number of the English Review and he needed the advertisement.

Epstein, when told of it at the Café Royal in London, expressed his indifference to the “already mutilated monument.” Lifting the heavy canvas wrapping one day from the stone, in an effort to get a proper look at the sculptor’s work, one discovered protests in English, French and German inscribed upon the base of the monument, protests against the stupid provincialism which keeps a work of art veiled.

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