ART DEGRADED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21529, 29 December 1931, Page 7

ART DEGRADED

EPSTEIN’S PROTEST ' . LONDON, December 18. The belief that his art is being degraded by its associations with trade, has prompted the famous sculptor, Jacob Epstein, to make an indignant protest against, the exhibition' of his statue, “ Genesis,” now the property of Mr Alfred Bossom, M.P., as “ a sideshow in a trade exhibition, which is to people of any sensibility.” The statue is being displayed at a West Bromwich tradesmen’s exhibition, to which Mr Bossom lent it. It is labelled: “ Genesis, by Epstein. The mystery of life. The wonderful creation attracts as it repulses. Proceeds to your local hospital. Admission 3d.” Mr Bossom, in an interview, says that he is assured that “Genesis” was not placed among the trade exhibits, but shown separately for the hospital funds. An official of the West Bromwich Corporation, which merely hired the hall to the .exhibitors, agrees that the statue is unsuitably shown, being, in a ■'corridor behind a plot of artificial grass,_ with small trees and flower pots alongside it. The effect is incongruous and very bad. People simply look and laugh without understanding. They think it is an amusing sideshow.