Adam and Eve beneath the Tree of Knowledge 1941

Svend Rathsack made this piece, Adam and Eve beneath the Tree of Knowledge, in bronze, and I'm really drawn to the way the figures emerge from the material, as if they're still in the process of becoming. It's like the story itself is still being formed. The surface has this wonderful texture, the tooling visible giving it a kind of raw quality. In places it’s smooth and in others, it feels almost like the artist has left the marks of his hand, you can almost feel the pushing and pulling of the clay, the give and take between artist and material. Look at the leaves of the tree, there’s this lovely detail, almost like fingerprints. I love how the whole piece feels like a conversation, maybe even a struggle. Rathsack is in dialogue with the bronze, and we are invited to enter the conversation. It’s reminiscent of Rodin, but with its own distinctive voice. Art invites us to embrace uncertainty, to question, and to find our own meaning within the work.