Feed 
Twitter 
Facebook The dust has settled…
Things couldn’t be more different in the Epstein Archive at the moment after the excitement of the Party! exhibition opening. It was great fun doing the performance of the Epstein puppet theatre with Bob – there was a great turn out and it seemed like other people enjoyed it too which was nice. Bob is not in Walsall again until May, where he is in residence in the Artists Studio every Wednesday, Thursday and Friday throughout the month. Who knows what will happen, but it’s going to be good. Between now and then there is going to be lots and lots of cataloguing on the go. The archive is taking shape nicely, all of the letters to Jacob Epstein and almost all of the letters to Kathleen Garman are now catalogued and searchable online – you can find the catalogue here. This is a pretty long process, but thankfully our small band of intrepid volunteers, Jonathan Kelham, Ellie Matthews and Lesly Pritchard, are helping me with the catalouging.
Seeing as it’s Friday, let’s relive a few songs from the Party! opening courtesy of The Ken Ardley Playboys. I think you will agree that I won The Epstein Quiz (the very loud voice next to camera).
Ken Ardley Playboys, Window Box, Party!
I am extremely excited about playing with the Ken Ardley Playboys at the Party! show next week. The Apathy Band and some of the Ken Ardley Playboys played in Pescara Italy just after we finished the window installation for the party show last week. The window installation is the largest and most involved art work we have made so far involving images and objects from the Garman Ryan Collection; see the video below. It is inspired by some very touching photo’s of Esther at a party she must have organized for Roland Joffe when he was six or seven in our version of the party at the Epstein House things have gone rather crazy and busts by Epstein have be festooned with silly string and streamers. I find the party photos very moving.
They are an insight into the personal lives of the Epstein’s. Because Kathleen does not appear in them I suspect they are her eye view of proceedings. Perhaps when people look through the portholes of the window box installation for a brief instant become Kathleen. Neil has made a wonderful job of representing our efforts so far in the Archive Gallery in the Garman Ryan Collection. He has edited the films we have made so far with ‘Pathe’ footage of Epstein. It makes for a very effective 45 minutes of film. Hales Gallery in London are interested in organizing a screening of the film. It’s always enjoyable working behind the scenes of the Gallery. Neil and I are very much involved with one aspect of the Gallery but as we were working last week I was amazed at what a cultural centre The New Art Gallery Walsall has become. During most week days the Gallery is filled with school kids. Unlike most middle aged gallery goers I don’t mind a few kids running about. When I was a student I lived in Italy. The use of museums in Italy as Educational tools is far more advanced. Because so much of what it means to be Italian resides within the museum they jam them with kids. The New Art Gallery Walsall is doing a great job of reflecting how culture is developing while showing where its roots are.
Happy Birthday. 10 years old this month.
The results are in…
The most watched Bob and Roberta Smith and the Epstein video so far is ‘Archiving with Bob and Roberta Smith’. With an eye-watering 500 views, this video has consistently outgunned the competition.
What does this mean for the museum and gallery community more generally? I think the answer is clear – the public want museums all over the country to destroy their collections. Perhaps their could be a competition to see which gallery can do this in the most imaginative way – fire the Tate Collection out of a cannon, submerge British Museum artefacts in liquid nitrogen and smash them with a toffee hammer, or strap the Magna Carta to the back of a wild stallion and film it careering into a swimming pool of ink.
The public have spoken.
Bob says…
Wow the archive gallery looks great. I am eager to see it in person.
It was wonderful last week to visit the Museum of Everything with Neil Lebeter and Jo Digger. We met James Brett the inspirational collector who made the Museum of Everything a reality. For those not in the know the Museum of Everything is an exhibition of what for want of a better term has been called ‘outsider art’. It’s been the smash hit of the autumn and it’s free. Its early days but I hope to collaborate with James on a project next year.
Later in the afternoon we visited the Wild Thing show at the Royal Academy. It was great to visit the show with Jo Digger who is so insightful about Epstein’s work. Jo went into a very detailed explanation of the drawings which lead up to the Rock Drill many of which suggest a kind of hybrid object involving all sorts of other elements including women and doves. After that Jo and Neil joined me at Beaconsfield, 22 Newport Street, where I have a show called This Artist is Deeply Dangerous.
I went to Chris Ofili’s show at Tate Britain last night. Ofili is an artist who is deeply interested in Art and culture that resides outside the mainstream. Ofili’s show is incredible. It made me think that in painting terms he is as powerful as Francis Bacon. He is way beyond any other painter around just now.
Followers of Museums and their Directors will note that Walsall’s Stephen Snoddy was pretty involved in Ofili’s early career.
10 years of the New Art Gallery Walsall is celebrated early next month with the exhibition ‘Party’. Neil and I will perform our play about Epstein using the puppet theatre and my band The Ken Ardley Playboys are going to play. Bring cotton wool for your ears. It’s good to reflect upon the importance of the Garman Ryan Collection and note that the whole New Art Gallery Walsall would never have existed but for the foresight of Kathleen Garman and her friend Sally Ryan and the gift of their collection to Walsall.
The All-New Archive Gallery
Since returning from Christmas, I’ve been busy reworking the Archive Gallery on the 1st floor of the Garman Ryan Collection, with the help of our intrepid volunteer Jonathan. As you can see, this room now includes some of Bob and Roberta Smith’s works inspired by the Archive as well as items from the archive itself. A particular highlight for me is ‘Bob and Roberta Smith’s Epstein Studio Theatre’, which is awesome. As a final treat, some of the videos that Bob and I have been making over the past few months, including the play performed on the above stage, are also being shown along with some footage of Jacob Epstein and family from the British Pathe Archive. So, why not come along and see for yourself!
From Sean Clancy, PhD student at Birmingham Conservatoire. Currently writing a piece inspired by the Epstein Archive.
Spending a few hours in the Epstein archive gave me a valuable insight into what my musical response to this project might be. I am very attracted to Bob and Roberta Smith’s interpretation of the archive, as it asks a many interesting questions pertaining to the concept of archiving, and the concept of the gallery more generally. What interests me most, is not the biographical information that can be obtained from the archive, or the specific biographical content that Bob has focused on (such as letters from Theo Garman to his mother), but to the overarching concept that Bob has honed in on itself – (What happens to art when…).
Bob’s exhibition itself could be considered quite dangerous (in a sense that doesn’t really convey ‘ real’ danger), precisely because he is an artist ‘commenting’ on someone else’s art. The fact that he is an artist, gives his response to the archive slightly more currency that someone else’s, in today’s society at least (a contentious statement, I know!), as people are more inclined to take what an artist says more seriously than their own opinions, simply because they are an artist. (This obviously relates to Duchamp’s ready-made – Its art because the artist says its art etc.) Therefore if Bob suggests that when an artist dies people are more concerned about their parenting than their art, people will actually say to themselves ‘…well maybe I should think about their parenting because an artist has said so.’ I know this is meant tongue in cheek; however, an artists intention is not always apparent, and then again maybe it shouldn’t be apparent!
This idea has resonance with something Epstein himself has said on on the archive footage: where he says something along the lines that the public are so blinded by the critics that they may as well come into the exhibition blindfolded. It seems that the opposite is true today, that the public is so blinded by the artist, that they need not come to the exhibition at all!
Another thing that interests me is the fact that Bob’s response is to Epstein’s collection, and Epstein is of course dead. This creates a situation where everything in the collection is fair game for comment (as of course all things should be) however, it creates a one sided dialogue (if this is the correct word to use here) where Epstein is powerless to defend his work, or Bobs critique of it (or indeed the collection more generally) what I find more interesting is the fact that I can critique Bob’s work (or critique Bob’s critique of the collection [meta, meta art!]) He is of course free to defend his work from this critique, thus creating a critique of a critique of a critique, or as some would have it, a dialogue.
For this reason, I am interested in subverting some of the texts he has employed. This could be done my means of electronic processing.
The two pieces in the collection that I would be most interested in using would be The ‘chart of influence’ documenting Epstein’s influence on British sculpture (My own research deals with the anxiety of influence), and also ‘one man’s fight against the establishment’ which I found to be very interesting.
My piece will ideally be performed in the room that houses Bob’s work and will be performed by myself, ideally on a continuous basis. the plan at the moment is to have a looped recording of the manipulated text coming from loudspeakers (or a ghetto blaster!) whilst I drone slow chords from a melodica in realtime (which could be interjected with my own utterances).
My working title at this time is ‘What Happens to Bob and Roberta Smith’s Art, when he’s not looking’
Twittering Art Library and Archives
We’re trying out a new way for you to make enquiries about the Collections -we’ve set up a twitter account so you can tweet us with quick questions on anything such as Epstein and the Garman family, past exhibiting artists, the architecture,
I will attempt to answer in 140 characters or post up the answers here on our blog and send a link. You can also ask questions on here, or if there’s something you want to ask without the whole internet world knowing then email me jonescheryl@walsall.gov.uk.
Get tweeting!
One mans fight against the British Art Establishment
I think our short film of the play ‘One Mans Battle with the British Art Establishment’ is oddly on the mark concerning how Epstein was sidelined by the British Art Establishment. In his biography you get a sense of his feelings of growing paranoia which lead him to be suspicious of keys figures like Augustus John, Roger Fry and Henry Moore. It’s hard now to imagine the different power groups that existed but if they are anything like what they are like now he was right to feel actively excluded.
All artists are of course paranoid. My favourite Scene was where Epstein calls Henry Moore an M.F. when Moore fails to support him as a Tate Trustee. After Epstein died, Moore wrote an obituary. I forgot to point out in the film why Morrissey narrates it. It’s, of course, because Morrissey is a fan of Oscar Wilde; whom Epstein built a tomb for. On last weeks Desert Island Discs, Morrissey chose Oscar Wild as his favourite author. My wife Jessica Voorsanger likes the appearance of Kathleen the best.
Visit to the Tate Archive
Our Visit to The Tate Archive was amazing. It is a very different set up to the Walsall archive. Seeing letters is like ordering food from an expensive restaurant. They take a while to come but when they do its worth it. I am not naturally a scholar. The most illuminating aspect was looking at the photographs the Head Archivist showed us on the extensive tour we had. They have so much great stuff back there. Turner’s model boat, Francis Bacon’s suit case. When they open Tate Modern Two they should do a show of Artist Memorabilia. Is that what you have in mind with the new exhibition case? Many of the photos were of the sculpture ‘Adam’ taken at various stages. You could see Epstein’s working method played out in the images.
Epstein at Royal Academy
Yesterday I went to the Royal Academy. The RA is amazing at the moment. There is a great show by Anish Kapoor. This show is exceptional, funny, beautiful, and architecturally quite magnificent. It put my faith back into the idea of large scale sculpture. Big lumps are good; I hope they will get him to do something really big for the Olympics. I met Kapoor recently, he is a pretty formidable person. He told me it has taken him weeks to recover from making the RA show. You can see why. The show is encyclopaedic in its enquiry of different types of meaning in sculptural forms. I imagine Kapoor to be a bit like Epstein in character.
He is fiercely ambitious and obviously lets very little get in the way of his vision. He is also seen as a bit of an outsider at least compared to Anthony Gormley who is very much more an accepted insider.
Outsider/Insider what a load of Crap. Only the English think like this. Upstairs is Wild Thing. The billing for this show is silly. The press release even mentions the Troggs song. Epstein’s Rock Drill looks great. It is clearly the iconic piece in this show rivalled perhaps by Eric Gill’s X.T.C. It’s a great show. Gaudier Brzeska’s death was a disaster for humanity. I can well imagine we might think of him like we think of Picasso had he lived. Give the RA one more chance. There is even a rather limp show about climate change round the back.
Harlow Sculpture Town
Recently I visited Harlow Sculpture Town. Harlow is the New Town which features works by iconic British sculpters of the period just after Epstein died. They have an important early Elizabeth Frink. The architecture is similar to Coventry Cathedral and is absolutely great. The Henry Moore they have is the first public commission he was given after World War 2. It was a far sighted commission that really got him started on the career that is so celebrated now. I was visiting Harlow to see a possible site for my own attempt at Public Sculpture. I had to meet members of the Harlow Sculpture Trust. I mentioned I was working in the Epstein Archive and that he was excluded from participation in the British Art World in the way he would have wanted by Roger Fry and the Bloomsbury Group. One of the Trust Members told me the critic Herbert Reid got the same treatment from Roger Fry. Not sure if they deserve such a bum rap what do you think?
Eppy Daddy and the Aztecs
In the Tate Archive we saw a signed photo of Epstein with ‘Eppy Daddy’ scrawled in the bottom corner of it. I took my kids to see the wonderful Aztec show that is in the British museum last week. My god, what a fantastic culture that was. I said to my son it was a bit blood thirsty. He said ‘”get over it Dad. We have a guy nailed to a cross, they had jugs in the shape of eagles full of human hearts. What’s the difference? And they were brutally murdered by the lot who believed in the guy on the cross.”
I replied “Ok Simon Schama…” Eppy Daddy lived around the corner from the British Museum in the 1910’s. You can see his love of Assyrian sculpture in his Oscar Wilde Tomb. All his carvings show a powerful interest in the African, Egyptian and Aztec monumental sculpture. Ecce Homo is very Aztec looking. If you think of Eduardo Paolozzi it’s impossible not to see Epstein in his work. You not only see the influence of the Aztecs through Epstein but also the fact that Epstein was the inventor of the ROBOT with the Rock Drill. I think the inventor of the robot deserves to sign himself Eppy Daddy.
When we went to the Museum of Everything, we saw some wonderful 20th century outsider robots made of wire and transistors. It would be great to do a show of the great Robots. Actually Paolozzi did a show like this in the old museum of mankind. I saw it when I was a kid. It was great.
Theo & “One Man’s Battle with The Art Establishment”
There has been a tremendous amount of activity in the Epstein Archive over the past few weeks. Bob has been up a fair bit in the last fortnight and has created a tremendous amount of work inspired by the archive. Firstly is his sculpture of Theodore Garman, which was made last week. We made a film following the sculpture’s progress and Bob talks a little about his thinking behind it.
I must admit that I find the Theo sculpture a little terrifying and it featured heavily in a rather bizarre dream I had the other night.
Secondly, Bob made a minature theatre for a film we made last week. This play, titled “One Man’s Battle with The Art Establishment”, is a light hearted look at the life of Jacob Epstein and was tremendous fun to make. It is in two parts, so be sure to watch both!
The gallery’s Youtube channel is filling up with all the short films that Bob and I have been making over the last few months. We feel that this is an exciting and different way of getting people interested in archives.
Last but not least, we visited Walsall College last week to give a talk to one of the art classes. We showed some of the videos we have been making and took along some objects from the archive. It was really great to take the archive to the people and they seemed to enjoy the visit as much as we did.
See Esther…
After making the ‘See Esther’ film with Neil, I thought more about the process of Epstein making a portrait bust. The bust of Esther with a flower with her rather long neck is an open image of a young woman. It sits in stark contrast to the first bust which is the subject of our film. There is something unsettling in the image and I have begun to think it is the image of a young woman resisting being portrayed by her father. Nowhere in any of the letters from Esther or Theodore am I aware of them referring to their father as anything other than ‘Epstein’. Epstein’s Portrait busts were either of lovers, small children or the Famous. The first Portrait bust of Esther is uncomfortable. Esther stares ahead. Her gaze looks to the middle distance to a space beyond the viewer, beyond the artist.
I am reminded of being a teenager and relatives asking ‘what are you thinking?’ and wanting to shout at them but not being able to. Epstein called the first bust of Esther one of his best. He was right.
The default thing Art Historians say about Epstein’s busts is that he was a genius at being able to explore the psychology of his subjects. I am not sure that this is anything more than myth making. What is great about the 1st bust of Esther in his in ability to capture Esther’s psychological state.
Like Leonardo’s Mona Lisa she remains her own person resisting easy interpretation. Unlike the Mona Lisa there is no enigmatic smile.
Comment > Posts Tagged ‘Bob and Roberta Smith’