ART

Humanist art on heroic scale Epstein’s o

: pak pictures taken from nearly

100 photographs which illust-
rate Epstein: an Autobiography,
jus: published in Britain serve to
Wlustrate’ the world’s most con-
troversia! sculptoy.

The laughing “Ragamuffin”
shows a side of Epstein — his
love of children — which is easily
lost sight of in the violence of
reactions to his heroic works. In
“Adam,” he has sought to em-
body the bursting energy of mam
’ The story of how a boy from
New York’s Jewish quarter came
to Europe and made himself the
most-talked-of sculptor in Britain
is told almost entirely in tezms

_ of the furious controversies his
work has provoked.

Few sculptors can equal his
brilliance in portraiture. But for
50 years — the whole of a full

- working life — storms have burs;

BOOKS

whenever he has shown a major
work of any other kind. So we
have tended to look on him as

two people — the maker of fine.

portraits and the perverse, ex-
perimente:.

But he is perverse only in his
determined efforts to create a
kind of sculpture for which our
society has no use. There is no
split in his work — only a re-
flection of the fear our world has
of human values and deep feel-
ing. Humanist art on an heroic
scale — this has been his object.
No-wonder it has seemed out of
place to the capitalist press.

u u% bod
~ Of course, there are differences
of technique between the port-
raits and the monumental: work.
The touches of clay which break
the surface and bring light and
life to the bronze head would be

Jack London -- the

writer and his times

N 1903, at the Social Democratic
4 party club in Coventry — the
great industrial centre that was
to become Britain’s “hero city”
of the Second World War — I
attended a lecture:on the Social-
ist movement: in the US.

_ The lecturer, who had recent-
ly come over from the US., told
as of the amazing success of
Socialism in the U.S. at that time.
He also introduced: to us Jack

London and spoke to us about
his new novel, The Iron Heel.

_ Years later The tron Heel was
to become the textbook of many
young left-wingers in Britain
who, while having great misgiv-
ings about Labor policy — the
gradual reforming of capitalism
with minute doses of municipal
transporiation and labor legisla-
tion—yet had no clear idea of
how to move forward.

The lecture to the Chicago.

’Philomaths in The Iron Heel
éame as a real tonic to them.
It was a model for hundreds of
street-corner speakers all over
the country.
t am reminded of all this by
a new book, Jack London —
American Rebel, by Dr. Philip
S. Foner (obtainable in Vancou-
ver at the People’s Cooperative
' Bookstore, 337 West Pender
~ Street, price $4). .
- &t- is a collection of London’s
ngs and the study of ‘the
man and his times. I can heartily
“recommend it, for the reading
of London's main works is a great
_ antidote to reformist ideas.
ee eS
Jack London has been a con-
troversial ) ever since his
death in 1916 at the early age
of 40. Some co
much too revolutionary, for
frightening away the best ele-
ments by his unyielding advocacy
‘ot the class struggle.

Others, on the other hand, con-

demned him for mixing Marxism.

with the ideas of Nietzsche —
the reactionary German philos-
ophy of the “Superman,” and for
descending into romanticism.

(Dr. Foner points out that Lon-
don never let up one jot in his
fierce defense the class

nor did he accept the

philosophy of the “Blond Beast,”

mdemn him as

which ultimately became the basis
of Hitlerism.

. While The Iron Heel portrays
the defeat of the workers and
makes his prophetic description
of fascism, he ends his books on
a note of optimism, with the work-
ers re-forming their ranks, learn-

ing from mistakes, preparing
again for the final overthrow of
capitalism.

The iron Hee! was written in
1906-7 yet it foretells what actu-
ally took place under Hitler in
1933 with such graphic detail —
the betrayal .of the worker by
the corrupt trade union leaders
to the “Oligarchis,” the name
which history translated into fas-
cists.

This novel alone gives London
a lasting place in the ranks of
great socialist writers.

5 wi wt

His pamphlet Revolution, writ-
ten in 1905, underlines his com-
plete confidence in the working
class.

“1 received a letter the other
day ... it began ‘Dear Com-
rade. It ended ‘Yours for the
Revolution.”
letter and my letier began ‘Dear
Comrade,’ and ended ‘Yours for

' the Revolution’.”

He continued by listing the vari-
ous countries where he says there
aze seven millions all doing the
same. : Gis

His whole life was one of.
struggle. He got his inspiration

from his active participation) in
the workers’ day-to-day struggles.
It was only when he began to
be separated from this did he
fade and die. Brea Lee

His life is a lesson ito all of us.

‘He had not learnt, like Stalin

did, that the strength of any
leader is in his close and con-
tinued — association with tthe

masses. Lg?
Jack London lived a life of
the greatest contradiction. He

believed that the, Jack London, .

could beat the capitalists at their
own game, and thus supply to
the cause the necessary cash for:
propaganda.
How futile this was is seen in
the collapse of his latter. years.
He resigned from the Socialist
party in March 1916, dying in
November of the same year.

FRANK JACKSON

I replied to that -

meaningless in large sculpture
set 50 feet above our heads.

Such sculpture, whether free-
standing oz part of a building,
must have a strong impact at a
distance under varying conditions
of light.

It is Epstein’s misfortune and
ours that he has to show in gal-
leries work that should have been
seen in larger architectural set-
tings. . :

But had he waited for commis-
sions he might thave produced
nothing but the heads, after the
fury of the attacks on his earliest
job of the kind in 1907.

Because of his insistence on
showing these highly emotional
works out of context, he has been
misunderstood by people who
should have known better, and
abused as a destroyer of tradi-
tion.

E rumors circulated in Paris
that Broadway producers
cabled the astoundingly success-
ful Chinese Opera from Peking,
which played to packed houses

at the Sarah Bernhardt theatre .

during the International Theatre
Festival, represent a triumph of
art over bombs, music over the
rattle of bullets. Reportedly the

Broadway agents’ cables conclud- |

ed with the words, “‘All visas as-
sured.”

The opera drew people from
all over Europe.

‘Charlie Chaplin with his family
journeyed from Geneva and there
was such a rush for tickets that
the great comedian was accom-
modated only with difficulty.

For centuries it was the drag-
ons, the engimatic characters, the
grotesque masks and costumes,
the strange and fantastic in Chin-
ese art which fascinated the
Western mind. The depth and
subtlety, the shimmer and trans-
parent richness of this art lay
hidden. For centuries the West-
ern critics and interpreters had
cultivated the idea that Chinese
art was i and unknowable.

fed

The myth of unknowability was
broken down by the Chinese
opera players. Paris, the heart
of Europe, the city of paintings
and theatres, the city known for
its connoisseurs of art, famous
for its sensitivity to beauty and
grace, has been taken by sur-
prise. Is it China?
Peking? Strange! Marvellous!

In a theatre packed with gaily.

dressed women and men the cur-
tain rose and revealed a dimly
lit stage with a simple backdrop

depicting a Chinese scene in soft ~

colors.

The first episode was The Meet-.

Suite 6 - 426 Main Street,
Vancouver 4, B.C.

It it from ©

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_ Tribune Publishing Company Limited, ©

Please enter my subscription to the PACIFIC

Too little polished beauty for
the old school, too little neat ab-
straction for the “progressives”
of Bloomsbury, he has had rough
treatment from both. He is one
of the most learned and tradition-
al of sculptors, but his learning
has been absorbed into his own
work and not paraded in imita-
tions of any past.

He is an egotist, an anarchist.
But of all artists none believes
more deeply in a “committed”
art, an art based on human val-
ues, which says something to peo-
ple about themselves and theiz
life.

Capitalism cannot use such
artists to the full. It must always
try to buy their talents for the
drawing-room, and keep them at
all costs from speaking to and for
the whole people.

CHARLES MORRIS

Chinese opera company scores —
tremendous success in Europe —

ing of the Three, an adaptation

of a popular 14th century ro-

mance.

A famous general having fled
enemies who had slandered and
menaced him, is staying at an
inn. A young knight. and the
innkeeper, both would-be pro-
tectors of the general, are un-
known to each other and suspect
each other. At night the inn-
keeper steals into the knight’s

_ room to take away his sword. In

imagined pitch darkness the
knight and the innkeeper, strain-
ing their eyes to pierce the gloom
search and grope for one another
with drawn swords.

In this atmosphere of fear and
suspicion a ferocious duel begins.
Sabres slash the air and the

perilous triple jumps of the duel- ©

lers, their hairbreadth escapes,
are full of danger, suspense and
comedy. As they flash their

swords and miraculously miss

each other every time, the ad-
versaries- pant like: two blood-
thirsty leopards, first making you
gasp and in the next moment
roar with laughter.

The laughter is released not
from comic facial contortions but
springs out of impossible situa-
tions, fantastic postures and the
superb orchestration of the ac-
tors who perform a breathtaking
and precise acrobatic ballet.

In ‘its timing, geometrical ex-

_ actness and suspense, exploding

into comic relief, it is rivalled
only by Charlie Chaplin.
ee a eS
I do not know any theatre which
requires less knowledge of the
spoken word than the Chinese
operktg ect iy,
‘In The River, we vividly see

_ the old. boatman tie his ‘boat to

the bank, walk through the mud

- ‘

TRIBUNE.
Name ..... $3.00-1 year...
Address... $1.60 -4 year........

_ PACIFIC TRIBUNE — SEPTEMBER 9, 1955 —

bjective

4

SIR JACOB EPSTEIN

‘ ent
and help the young girl aa
bark. The wobbling of 1 | 4.
and the swaying of the “ene
the boatman rows her pee
deep waters seems absolut “ality
This episode has 4 lyrical 4 ip
and is perfectly harMON™ ie
theme, decor. and Ree Li
melodies sung by char. mhe
lan are belllike and haumtitt 9d
tinkling of background Thante!
songs Jend it the eD@™™
‘of a water color. = 44.4 get”
In the butterfly dance #P? Foe
batic feats of the PIA" gisé
a pattern of colors am swore!
lines of human limbs. oat
and men in bright costum
and somersault and 100
terflies skimming a? A
the air. In its presentativ
piece is nearer to th tg
concept of ballet. ee pee
is elusive and the eM
drama brings out the 7°"
oe

The curtain came i
thunderous applause; 1 shot
ping last ten minutes ™ cinoise
of “Bravo!” “Vive Jes it
as the players
ed the ovation bee
esty and clapped 10” . py}
in return. Distinguished ¢
hedge of his silver Moy
Charlie Chaplin, 2°

_ clapping. yo

Press photographers,
in the crowd to get 4 Fg
the players and to ; cae

ovation. Cable bohrie
and rotary vere ee ‘
papers, journals, 4
the most reactionary ai
monopoly papers, ie rfl

news of these W0
from Peking.
While the
myopically fail
lion Chinese, B
invite the artists of
perform. While the ©

rae

ernment, after having 7
Paris Agreements, ™ pi
execute the pes
negotiates and T
Tat the festival © ¥
and art exhibitions, she
Opera stands 4
Tower, vivid, i
every Parisian
Public demand ae th
ese players to €%' rinois® re
When L’Opera Ch (
for an additional te),
’ booking office 3016 rg
seats within two ~~

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