Page 296 - The Legacy of Abraham Rothstein - text

Introduction to the sculpture

his lifetime, found parallels and new significance in the stories of Old
Testament leaders like Jacob, David, Joshua, and Jeremiah. It is also
of interest that AR carved two representations of the Ten
Commandments, neither associated with Moses and their divine
origin (nos. 48 and 92); the law meant more to the artist than the
lawgiver.
The literary and historical portraits, considered in the light of AR’s
biblical pieces, present an oddly commingled potpourri of fact and
fiction—all enlivened by AR’s almost Talmudic commentary in the
choice of mood, pose, detail, and moment of portrayal. In some cases
(nos. 7 and 79) an author appears to be personified in a
representation of his words; in others, it is the quintessential story
(the one with an ethical or philosophical point) about a subject which
is illustrated (nos. 54 and 74). Most of these characters exhibit some
kind of intellectual or moral force (Sampson, no. 8, being a
noteworthy exception); although certain works categorized here as
studies or genre pieces may have originated in a purely aesthetic
impulse (no. 58, for example), AR never selected a known subject
from the public domain without a pre-existing personal interest.
It is in the carvings with no attributable individual identity that the
ambiguity of analysis is greatest; but concomitant with the risk of
speciousness is the reward of new and possibly profound
generalizations about the sculptor and his work. The genre pieces
may be viewed as resting at midpoint on a continuum of conscious
and unconscious processes, the portraits and studies being the
respective endpoints. In the reconstruction of a type of person,
memory and imagination play complementary roles; what the first, a
compendium of common traits associated with the type, does not
supply, the second automatically will. Specific elements of costume,
accoutrement, and pose are inevitable: the peddler’s sack, the
soldier’s cap, the praying man’s closed eyes. Facial features and
expression, however, are less accurately recalled and easily
reproduced; thus, the great similarity of mature male heads on the
genre and study pieces (considered below).
Who are these generalized human types? The shtetl figures tend to
be poor, scholarly, and intense, their Jewishness an inseparable
element of identity. In some cases (noted in the catalogue), those
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