Wild Thing: Epstein, Gaudier-Brzeska, Gill at the Royal Academy

“Over a period of 10 years from 1905 to 1915, three outstanding young sculptors emerged in Britain; Jacob Epstein, Henri Gaudier-Brzeska and Eric Gill. The radical impact of their work was to transform British sculpture.”

Three of my favourite sculptors together in one exhibition featuring around 90 works from sketches to sublime sculpture.  In their day they were at the bleeding edge of art, sometimes scorned for their compositions, sometimes vilified for their (sexual) subject matter.  Today they stand as some of the most beautiful and stylised works you can imagine.

The future influences are obvious, such as Henry Moore.  The pre art-deco styling comes across too.  Gaudier’s work over a very short time is shown to evolve so fast that if he had not have died so young, he could have grown into the greatest sculptor of the 20th century.

So what did I enjoy most - Gill’s sexiness, Gaudier’s fluidity and Epsteins harsh mechanical form.  A great showcase for sculpture.