Torso in Metal from Rock Drill Flashcards
title
Torso in Metal from Rock Drill
artist
Epstein
date
1915
associated sculpture name and date
Rock Drill, 1913-1915
why was the first version created and when was it destroyed
Was created before the Great War (At the time Epstein was excited by the rapidly advancing machine culture in Europe and America)
destroyed in 1915 and transformed it into Torso in Metal from Rock Drill
composition of rock drill (1)
*Rock Drill comprises a plaster figure perched on top of an actual rock drill
*The combination of an industrial rock drill and the plaster figure makes the artwork an example of a readymade created at the same time as Marcel Duchamp’s Bicycle Wheel (1913)
quote on epstein turning his back on war
turned his back on his “experimental pre-war days of 1913” (Epstein)
how does the transformed torso constrast the origional figure in its mood
in contrast to the power of the first one (showing the power of the machine age), the truncated version seems defenceless and melancholic (evocative of the wounded soldiers who were returning home from the trenches in startling numbers)
how was the truncation of the origional version a turning point in his career
*Epstein’s dismantling of Rock Drill and truncation of the abstracted male form marks a crucial turning point in his career, signalling the end of his engagement with the Machine Age
-his disillusionment with machinery developed at the sight of the many maimed and mutilated soldiers returning from the First World War trenches
materials of first version
-Figure cast in white plaster (could not afford to have it cast in steel)distinguishes it more from black shining drill
emphasises machinery’s dominance
treatment of figure in first version (description of figure)
-cast in plaster (could not afford to have it cast in steel) , distinguishes it more from black shining drill
-Draws together primitive and geometric elements
-Only naturalistically-treated element is the foetal shape protected within the vice-like ribs
-visor like face influence from primitive Baule and Bambara animal heads (Wears visored helmet )
-departs from classical male nude
-Driller is angular, rigid, de-humanised (Suggests world dominated by mechanised power)
*Body beneath seems made up of components from some formidable engine
*Segmentation of body and legs
*Body conveyed through semi-organic forms similar to the stripped muscle of an anatomical textbook
*Legs - curving outwards into the lines of a gothic arch - are tensile and armoured
*Drill itself appears as an extension of the man’s body - trusting down like a mechanised penis towards the ground
primitive influence of the head
possible primitive influence in the visor-like face: related to certain Baule and Bambara animal heads?
Baule animal heads (Baule = an African people inhabiting Côte d’Ivoire)
2 Bambara animal heads (Bambara = West African people living chiefly in Mali)
what is the only naturalistic part of the first version
-Only naturalistically-treated element is the foetal shape protected within the vice-like ribs
-Driller is angular, rigid, de-humanised (Suggests world dominated by mechanised power)
*Body beneath seems made up of components from some formidable engine
*Segmentation of body and legs
*Body conveyed through semi-organic forms similar to the stripped muscle of an anatomical textbook
*Legs - curving outwards into the lines of a gothic arch - are tensile and armoured
*Drill itself appears as an extension of the man’s body - trusting down like a mechanised penis towards the ground
depiction of the drill in first version
-Driller is angular, rigid, de-humanised , cotrastic colour to the body (Suggests world dominated by mechanised power)
*Drill itself appears as an extension of the man’s body - trusting down like a mechanised penis towards the ground
depiction of the body beneath the torso in the first vision
*Body beneath seems made up of components from some formidable engine
*Segmentation of body and legs
*Body conveyed through semi-organic forms similar to the stripped muscle of an anatomical textbook
*Legs - curving outwards into the lines of a gothic arch - are tensile and armoured
how is the parent and child theme explored in both versions
form of an embryo and the parent is a man
In original piece: turning the handle to operate the machine with his right hand the driller is conscious of his responsibility towards the new life of the future
Seems to ask whether the organic foetus will be transformed into a robot as de-humanised as the driller himself
materials and techniques for first version
*Epstein uses a real rock drill as part of the work (unique in his view that machine could be used as a legitimate form in art)
*Epstein later claimed he had thought of attaching a motor to make the piece kinetic (= moveable)
*The use of a readymade as part of Rock Drill means that Epstein can be compared with the most advanced European contemporaries
Could not afford to have it cast in steel so had it cast in white plaster
-The white plaster contrasts dramatically with the dark colour of the drill
-Casting removes all trace of the artist’s hand, adding to the machine-like efficiency of the figure
-Casting in a mould favours the creation of smooth dynamic planes
the use of readymade in the first version
-readymade (drill)
-At this time Marcel Duchamp (the leading Dadaist) had only recently nominated a bicycle wheel as a work of art (1913)
effect of adding bronze to the trucated version
-once truncated, bronze material was added
-Dark sheen adds to mechanistic character
-Dense almost black patina references machines
-De-humanises the subject
-Tensile strength allows for the outing head on shaft-like neck
-There is no handling visible on the surface - further mechanises the subject
-Detail of angular abstracted musculature possible in bronze
influence of primitivism
*Possible primitive influence in the visor-like face: perhaps related to certain (African) Baule and Bambara animal heads
*Broad shoulders, narrow waist and sexual connotation of drill-bit evolved from the stylised primitive masculinity of Epstein’s Man Woman c. 1913
The sexual content of the work (enlarged penis represented by the drill) also relies on primitive sculpture (epstein owned Standing Male Figure
by Fang)
what sexually primitive work did epstein own
Standing Male Figure
Fang
Gabon Wood
In Jacob Epstein’s collection of primitive art
influence of Vorticism
-british avante garde group formed in 1914, aimed to create art that expressed the dynamism of the modern world
*Rock Drill has been hailed as a pinnacle of Vorticist art (even though Epstein was not officially a member of the Vorticists - he never signed the Vorticist Manifesto)
*The fact that Rock Drill originally stood as a celebration of modern machinery and masculine intensity aligned it with the aims of the Vorticists
influence seen in…
*Stripped down, angular style
*Geometrical fragmentation/ strong structure of Cubism
*Futurist-style dynamism (lines of force), though less figurative than Futurism
*Illustrates the dynamism of the modern world/ machine age
*Forms are enclosed in well-defined contours - called containing lines (not blurred lines of Futurism
Who founded vorticism and what did they say about rock drill
Wyndham Lewis described Rock Drill as “one of the best things Epstein has done. The nerve-like figure perched on the machinery, with its straining to one purpose, is a vivid illustration of the greatest function of life.” Blast magazine, no.2.
how was epstein influenced by the machine age in his first version
*Epstein had encountered a drilling machine while visiting a quarry in search of stone
*The most up-to-date drill developed for rock-cutting was a revolutionary implement in the mining industry
*Epstein impressed by the drill’s deafening force, speed and effectiveness
