A Young Man's Work
LEtImmtuca:'s Kneeling Woman' is one of the most familiar anthology- pieces of twentieth-century sculp- ture, and many, must have wondered how this distinct, precious, elusive piece relates to the artist's work and career. The key-word turns out to be the last one, for the sculptor, who is extremely well represented in the exhibition now at the Tate by forty-two sculptures as well as drawings, etchings and paintings, is singularly elusive, almost evasive. .The biography,. is important and revealing. This is young man's work, for Lehmbruck died in 1919 at the age' of thirty-eight. His youth was spent in the Germany of the Blanc Reiter and Die Briieke, but he was apparently undisturbed by their dynamic and experimental tendencies. He was in Paris from 1911 to 1914 and here also he was not affected by the most advanced movements of that time and place. There is no reason to require dogmatically such a response and . influence, but it is strange to find that his sculpture is free not only from the stylistic habits of the time but.also from so many modern emphases and prejudices. Although he was influenced by Rodin and Maillol, his work lacks the energy and drama of the one and the sensuousness of the other. In one way or another his custom is 'to dematerialise the bodily sub- stance, calm its energies, still its nerves; his modelling of flesh has a feminine reticence. He did not emphasise or exploit the qualities of his materials. With few exceptions his modelled works have a certain leathery absence of touch; the pieces in stone deny its weight and hardness. Aild .in this material the forms are often smudges and :softened as if a hand had wiped over a too vehe- ..ment decision and gesture. Yet this softening and blurring is not wholly expressive, does not depend upon a fundamental idea of sculpture as it does with, say, Medardo Rosso. Again, Lehmbruck's distortions are not in the usual modern directions; they stress refinement, fragility or immateriality both of form and of content. His 'Climbing Man' —another anthology piece—is symbolic of his artistic character in both its conception and its treatment. The man's right foot is firmly planted on a rock, but the torso does not suggest resolu- tion and the face has a look of meditation and withdrawal. The arms, poised above the chest, seem singularly vulnerable and one thin, pointing finger carries almost more expression, however ambiguously, than the rest of the body. To add further uncertainty there is in some of the etch- ings and drawings more than a hint of that body- worship and decadent sensuality which might have been nastily transformed under a totalitarian ' reime, but Lehmbruck is surely the least aggres- sive, most sensitive artist. This is an interesting and disturbing exhibition, disturbing not because Lehmbruck sought to be—he is one of the only major German artists of the time who did not— bust because the vision, like the work, seems neither fully articulate nor articulated.
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