Popular Prisoner

Britain's fiery old Sculptor Jacob Epstein, who has caught his share of brickbats in the past 45 years, stepped up again to heave a few himself. Epstein's targets: the $32,000 Unknown Political Prisoner competition in London (TIME, March 23), and abstract sculpture in general. "Rot," growled Epstein, "abstract atrocities. The whole thing is bunk. One's like another, all empty and meaningless. They philosophize and talk, but it doesn't convince you. You can't take it seriously."

Epstein's blast was only the most recent in a row that has been rumbling ever since Abstractionist Reg Butler's cagelike Prisoner won first prize in the competition and an infuriated visitor to the show crushed the winning model in his fists. (His punishment: ten months on probation and 10 guineas in costs.) Readers flooded the London press with outraged letters; critics wrote denunciations of Butler's work; students daubed one of his other sculptures with paint. And when word got around that Butler hoped his Prisoner would be erected on some such site as the cliffs of Dover, 42 members of Parliament signed a motion "that this House views with dismay the proposal."

Through it all, Sculptor Butler had kept remarkably even-tempered, taking his licking for the most part in silence. But at week's end it looked as if he might have the last laugh after all. At London's Tate Gallery, where his rebuilt Prisoner is now protected by extra guards, officials started counting the ballots that 1,009 gallery-goers had cast for the popular favorite among the 80 models on display. The winner, by 55 votes: Reg Butler and his abstract Prisoner.

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