The story behind the Bob and Roberta Smith sculpture could be placed in a single bracket, (a fathers refusal to except his son). However things are never this simple, as to understand why Epstein, who was widely known not to be a pleasant man, would treat his first born son in such away, I need to examine and understand not only Epstein but more importantly Theo, a talented artist and troubled man.
The most obvious place to start would be Theo's mental health, I feel however that this is not only slightly miss understood, as having a mental health condition may reflect on your action but does not define who you are, but also safely keeping yourself within the box, when what you should be doing is taring the boxes sides down and exploring all of the facts and possibilities.
So I intend to go back to the Beginning and look at firstly the childhood of Jacob Epstein to try and understand what kind of man he was and how this could reflect on not only how he treated Theo but also the influence he had on Katherine for her to allow this treatment to go one and not stand up for her children. I will also look at the relationships between Theo and his mother but also that of his sisters and the way in which the family functioned under all the disturbances and secrets. Other aspects I will be looking at are Theo's art and his health and its deterioration and the social implications of the time.
But most of all I want to try and understand the emotions felt by Bob and Roberta Smith when researching the history of Theo and his family that ultimately resulted in the creation of a piece that not only seems to sums up Theo's whole life, the mass of random pieces of wood that don't seem to fit together, the abandoned items, and the tormented words of a fractured mind, but also reflected the man himself a talented artist, beloved brother and friend. I see all these things in this sculpture and it is this that drew me to it and makes me wanted to feel every emotion ingrained into every piece of wood.
The most obvious place to start would be Theo's mental health, I feel however that this is not only slightly miss understood, as having a mental health condition may reflect on your action but does not define who you are, but also safely keeping yourself within the box, when what you should be doing is taring the boxes sides down and exploring all of the facts and possibilities.
So I intend to go back to the Beginning and look at firstly the childhood of Jacob Epstein to try and understand what kind of man he was and how this could reflect on not only how he treated Theo but also the influence he had on Katherine for her to allow this treatment to go one and not stand up for her children. I will also look at the relationships between Theo and his mother but also that of his sisters and the way in which the family functioned under all the disturbances and secrets. Other aspects I will be looking at are Theo's art and his health and its deterioration and the social implications of the time.
- The way in which mental health was understood.
- The depiction of family in other art
- The family unit, controversy,shame, etc.
But most of all I want to try and understand the emotions felt by Bob and Roberta Smith when researching the history of Theo and his family that ultimately resulted in the creation of a piece that not only seems to sums up Theo's whole life, the mass of random pieces of wood that don't seem to fit together, the abandoned items, and the tormented words of a fractured mind, but also reflected the man himself a talented artist, beloved brother and friend. I see all these things in this sculpture and it is this that drew me to it and makes me wanted to feel every emotion ingrained into every piece of wood.
Hi Zoe,
ReplyDeletethat all looks very good. You obviously have put a lot of thought into which direction to go in, which is brilliant. You certainly have a lot of stuff that you now can research in more depths.
Best,
Alke