Contemporaries likened the young French sculptor, (who lived with his Polish companion Sophie Brzeska, and worked in London from 1911 to 1914) to a wolf, a goat, a wild thing. A charismatic, distrubing presence, he became, in his tragically curtailed career, a vital catalyst and pathfinder to the birth of modern sculpture.
This talk, developed for the centenary of Gaudier's time in Britain, explores the legends which grew around his name and the reality of his brilliant drawings and sculpture. It also coincides with the publication of a new edition of H S Ede's Savage Messiah (1931) and his promotion of Gaudier's work at Kettle's Yard, Cambridge.
Dr Silber has had a distinguished career working in and directing internationally renowned galleries in the UK as well as writing and lecturing in the UK and USA. She is currently chair of the Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society.