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A day in the life of the Epstein Archive

I came into the gallery last Friday 18 September knowing I had to do a radio interview recording with Lucy from BBC Radio 4 about the works we are lending to the Royal Academy show, ‘Wild Things’ which is happening at the end of October. The exhibition features works by Jacob Epstein, Gaudier Brzeska and Eric Gill. As I discovered when Lucy arrived, the radio show will have Anthony Gormley talking about modernism and Epstein’s influences. One of the things Lucy asked me in the interview was where I thought British art would be today without Jacob Epstein? Hmmm interesting question! You will have to listen to the radio to find out what I said (I can’t actually remember!)

Enough rambling! Going back to last Friday morning 18 September. I went down to the archive to see how Bob and Neil were getting on. They had been to a seminar on archives together in London the day before and then travelled back on the train together to Walsall. More ideas had obviously surfaced because they told me that Bob was planning to dress up as a sort of pastiche of Lady Kathleen Epstein with Neil’s girlfriend’s fur coat, his trousers rolled up to his knees (his own shoes) a funny looking black velvet hat and a ball of wool unravelled to make a wig out of. OK, I said, wondering what else to say. Thankfully Bob elaborated and told me where he was getting the idea from. In one of the boxes in the Epstein Archive was a handbag full of Kathleen’s notebooks and diaries. She had written inside one of them: ‘Property of Lady Kathleen Epstein – if found please return to ……….’. So Bob’s plan was to go into Walsall wearing his outfit and a fake handbag full of objects which he planned to drop around the town. They would all have tags on them which asked people to return them to The New Art Gallery Walsall. (I’m sure you will see more about this in Neil and Bob’s blogs.) All well and good and I left them to it.

I met Lucy from BBC Radio 4 later that day; we were trying to find somewhere quiet to hold the interview. All our rooms were full so I suggested we go into the archive room which I thought Bob and Neil would have left. Down we went into the basement of the gallery and I entered the archive room followed by Lucy, only to be confronted by Bob in a fur coat and velvet hat and woolly wig. I found it hilarious, I think Lucy did too and we were able to throw a few comments about the project into the interview along with quotes from Epstein’s love letters to Kathleen. Bob seemed quite happy and he and Neil went off to film the project around Walsall. Hopefully, the film they made will be here on this blog for you to see soon.