Female Figure in Flenite 1913

Jacob Epstein made this ‘Female Figure in Flenite’ with some chisels and stone, though the exact date is not known. Isn't it strange how an object can be so still and yet also so full of movement? I want you to look closely at the way the stone has been worked. See how the texture has been left relatively rough. The artist seems to be embracing the roughness of the stone and using it to bring this shape to life. There's a real sense of physicality to it, a feeling of the hand at work. I find my eyes keep coming back to the head. It’s tilted, almost as if lost in thought. Maybe the piece is about feeling or just the simple fact of being. Like Modigliani, Epstein’s forms are simplified to their essence, a distillation of feeling. Art is an ongoing conversation, a conversation that never really ends.