SCULPTURE

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 12, 13 July 1935, Page 5

SCULPTURE

A W.E.A. LECTURE

Continuing his course of lectures on "Contemporary Art" for the Workers' Educational Association on Tuesday evening at the Trades Hall. Mr. E. C. Simpson, 8.A., gave an illustrated lecture on "Sculpture," and indicated the attitude of modern sculptors to their art. The speaker reviewed the history of sculpture from earliest times and referred' to its greatness -in the ancient world. It suffered an eclipse at the fall of the Roman Empire but was reborn in medieval tinjes, when its main characteristics were Romanesque and Gothic. Sculpture was subservient at other times to architecture, religion, and varying influences, but it has now been divorced from Church, State, and finance.

The modern artist was faced with the problem .of constructing a new sculpture, free from other than sculptural,' purposes. Some of them had turned to the world's content of sculpture for assistance in their technical problems, feeling certain they would find sculptors who had produced something comparable with their own experiments.. They were original artists who had examined the sculptures produced by distant and obsolete cultures in order extract from them something of service to that enlargement of experience .which they h^ped lo compass by their own "work;' . ■ . '".'."...""'

Mr. Simpson showed a number of lantern slides to illustrate tiie work of leading modern sculptors, and explainetl different points in regard to each; He stated that the artist who understood his material could kiep within its limitations and yet turn an inert block into a full form existence. He had a profound respect for his material, and insisted that it must retain its character. Stone was hard and concentrated and must not be forced to a point of weakness or falsified .into soft flesh. . All, art arrived at unity of design by repetition of one or several themes, and the artist created interest, and sometimes surprice, by varying and opposing ft themes. Recent scultpure showed a fork in its development in that the formal relations were sometimes combined with a reflection of qualities typical .of living things. The second type of sculptor linked his formal conceptions with the vital rhythms present in natural forms. Observations of ' Nature enlarged an artist's form and kept him fresh, and free from working from a formula. The, principles of form and rhythm were found in natural objects such as pebbles, ' rocks, bones, trees, and plants. The modern sculptor made himself familiar with the w-vs' of Nature, particularly the ways of growth, so that he could create ideal forms which had all the vital rhythm and structure of natural forms. He could escape from what was incidental in Nature, and create what was spiritually necessary and eternal. Mr. Simpson dealt with the psychological value of sculpture and showed many attractive slides. An interesting discussion followed. Next Tuesday the lecturer will speak on. "Painting."