King's King

Sculptor Jacob Epstein is no charmer. In London, where he has lived for 34 years, U. S.-born Epstein's elemental stonecutting has regularly shocked the prissy, amused the laity, enraged the pretty and made news for the press. Last week it all happened again when his latest work, a three-ton figure in pink alabaster entitled Adam, was exhibited at the Leicester Galleries. In general mass and demeanor Adam resembled an unusually upright gorilla with his fists at his chest and his face lifted manlike toward the stars. The conception was obvious and the execution direct.

Art critics who have learned their lesson this time paid Adam respect. "A piece of giant brutality, rugged power and exultant energy," said the Star. "A figure more powerful than the most powerful animal, indeed, a being that is king of all creation," said the Evening Standard. Said bushy-haired Sculptor Epstein, king of the Primitive movement in sculpture (whose authentic impulse none may question, whose enduring value time will tell): "I saw Adam as the questing, mysterious primitive man. I saw him as the fount of all mankind."

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