What was Modern? (1910-1914)

Jacob Epstein

Jacob Epstein, Rock Drill (NA 14.8, Dec 25, 1913)

Only two of JACOB EPSTEIN’s works were featured in The New Age, and these were printed individually, not included in any of the series that ran in the periodical. Nonetheless, his art retains a central importance in debates over the ideal form of modern British art. Epstein was already well-known as a sculptor in England when he was commissioned to create a tomb for Oscar Wilde. His monument was first displayed in his London studio in June of 1912, when its photograph was printed in The New Age. The tomb was later transported to Paris; offended by its apparent eroticism, Parisian customs officials refused to recognize it as a work of art, imposing a commercial import duty upon it. Once it had reached Père Lachasise cemetery, the figure’s genitals were coated with plaster. Rock Drill, a study for a sculpture of the same name, was reproduced in The New Age on Christmas Day, 1913. The figure, a curious amalgam of man and machine, with its obvious phallicism, also met with charges of obscenity. Epstein’s version of the modern emphasized the geometrical and mechanical nature of the human form, but his work, like that of Sickert, disturbed critics who thought its subject matter debased.