Hieratic Head of Ezra Pound 1914

This is Henri Gaudier-Brzeska’s Hieratic Head of Ezra Pound, a stone sculpture. Brzeska had a direct approach to carving, a kind of wrestling with the stone to reveal the form within, and you can really see this in the finished piece. The sculpture feels so solid, so present. The surface is rough, with visible chisel marks, and the whole piece feels like it emerged directly from the earth. It's so different to those classical sculptures which are all smooth and polished. Look at the way the artist has simplified Pound’s features - the long nose, the beard, the kind of austere expression. I'm struck by the way the artist has rendered the eyes, like deep-set horizontal slits. It's an odd, slightly unnerving effect, as though Pound is peering out at us from some ancient, unknowable place. It reminds me of some of the ancient Cycladic sculptures. Art is such a conversation across time.