Page 348 - The Legacy of Abraham Rothstein - text

Genre: other

52 Chinese soldier
Wood
5.25” x 2.75”
Inscriptions: Abraham (Hebrew, on top of piece)

Cho Lu (on front, next to figure)

(various mock Chinese characters, on front)

This enigmatic piece is carved in high relief into half a section
of a round branch, oriented vertically. The figure, truncated at
the torso, wears a military uniform including a cap—but who is
he? The inscription does not immediately recall any recent
Chinese war hero, but the word or phrase may not be the best
transliteration possible.

58 Andean flute player *
Wood
16.25” x 5.25”

Standing barefoot on a mound resembling a mountain top
(attached to a separate turned base), this Inca shepherd in
trousers, an odd narrow-brim hat, and a short cape over one
shoulder plays an end-blown flute held vertically against his
body. The instrument is ethnomusicologically correct; that fact,
in conjunction with the costume details, suggests that AR’s
inspiration was found in a photograph or drawing in a book.
The figure works both as a representation of an exotic
character and as an abstract composition of smooth rounded
volumes, giving it a more contemporary feel than most of AR’s
work.

80 Persian man
Wood
7.125” x 3”

This piece may be linked thematically to AR’s Omar Khayyam
(no. 7), probably the sculptor’s primary source for ideas about
inebriated Persians. A photograph of a lost clay figure shows a
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