The South African years: part 3

However, he did not think of living in Israel, despite the fact that he  felt so much at home there.

He spent  six weeks in the country  and then sailed to Rome where he found  a studio on the Piazza Bologna in which he worked  under the inspiration of past and contemporary  Italian masters.  One of his most profound encounters was with Michelangelo’s Moses in the church of San Pietro in Vincoli.

“I was wondering who was the greater sculptor of the two – Moses who carved the Ten Commandments or Michelangelo who carved Moses”.[i]

After seven weeks in Italy  he flew to London for a few days to draw inspiration from  the latest works of British sculpture.  Jacob Epstein  had meanwhile completed the controversial “Adam”, 1939, (Harewood House, Yorkshire)  which was hewn from a single  block of alabaster  and the double figure of  “Jacob and the Angel”, 1941 (London, Tate Gallery). These sculptures may  have inspired Wald to create a series of Biblical works and to  distinguish himself as a Jewish sculptor.

From London he went to Paris where he remained for ten days to absorb the most recent artistic trends. Wald had been isolated from the centres of modern art for fifteen years, whilst the cataclysmic events of the Second World War had swept over Europe and had brought the tragic death of many Jewish artists of  the  École Juive.   

After Paris he boarded “The Queen Mary” at Cherbourg and was bound for the U.S.A. This  was  to  be  the climax of his trip.  He regarded the United States as the “push-button of civilization”[ii], where  he intended  to make his mark.  He arrived  in New York in June, the hottest time of the year, his exhibition scheduled for the 7th September at the New Gallery in  West 44th Street. His sculptures were sent directly from South Africa[iii].  The logistics were handled by a travel agent who had a high regard for his brother, Rabbi Marcus, and who undertook to take care of the consignments. In addition to works completed during his travels[iv], Herman Wald managed to  create some pieces in New York, just prior to the exhibition. He rented a studio on the 10th floor of the Carnegie Hall Building, which also served as his accommodation. His creative momentum was the  result of his longing for Vera. It inspired in him  a further reflection on the love theme and he created the first in a series of sculptures of Adam and Eve (See Part II, Fig 24). These would culminate in the love-motifs of his last period, with which he would attain the zenith of his career.  (See Part II, Fig. 35).

His  self-doubt was apparent in his letters to Vera:  “I am really grateful to you that you don’t mind whether I shall or shan’t be a success” [v]. Her delicate support   gave him the incentive “to make a success of it.” [vi] He wrote that he was filled with hope, but suffered from insecurity. Then again he bravely conjured up his optimism: “now I am getting determined to make it, just to spite my own scepticism and the doubts of others.”[vii]  In his letters he  expresses his worries about the financial stress that Vera  had to endure.

The exhibition in New York, which comprised a collection of thirty works, proved to be a success and the sale of at least nine sculptures   is recorded.[viii] It was positively  reviewed in the New York press including The Forward. The critic of the New York Times, Steward Preston, whose judgement was greatly valued within the art world, made constructive  comments. To these he added, what he thought, was a somewhat critical remark, which in hindsight  turned out to be  positive. He compared Herman Wald with Jacob Epstein:

“With his ridges and bosses and frenzied modelling and his subjugation of the plastic to the literary, Herman Wald resembles  Jacob Epstein."[ix]

Steward Preston made special mention of the sculpture “The Sacrifice of Isaac” and described it as “genuinely original and successful”[x].  This gave Wald further impetus to distinguish himself as a specifically Jewish artist in his future work. Although the reception of his work to the contemporary reader seems somewhat lukewarm, Herman Wald felt that he was  taken seriously in New York and this meant everything to him. This was also expressed by the art historian Dora Sowden:  “It is only by measuring our standards against those of the great world outside that we can hope to keep level and to achieve something worth having. Herman Wald’s exhibition is, therefore, in a sense our exhibition and we must congratulate him not only for himself, but also on our own behalf as South Africans.”[xi]

The exhibition was also received with enthusiasm by the Amerikai Maguyar Nepszava, (The American People’s Hungarian Newspaper) in which the former principal of his old Hungarian school in Cluj, Mr Erdely proudly wrote: 

“… 30 years have gone by since I last saw him, and the past student accounts to his principal, how he first went to Budapest; where he was the outstanding student of the National Academy of Art in Adreske road. He was the favourite of Kish Valudi Strobel Zsigmond (sic.) [xii]

After this artistic achievement Herman Wald returned to South Africa and  was happily reunited with his family. Vera meanwhile had been dependent on the generosity of friends. Spurred on by his success, Wald worked on a new collection which he exhibited in his Beaux Arts Gallery[xiii].

At the time he decided to make ceramic copies of his small-scale sculptures.  He built a kiln in his studio and trained his assistants in the craft  of casting and glazing. Dora Sowden wrote  about them:

 “these glazed sculptures go beyond decorative art to serious artistic expression. So complete is Herman Wald’s mastery of this technique, that he can convey through it his Jewish ideas and his African observation as well as the sheer beauty of line and colour which needs no title to give it worth and meaning.” [xiv]

However, the work load of running a kiln in his studio became too much for him and in 1954 he outsourced his ceramic work to the Vaal Potteries in  Meyerton, near Vereeniging. Examples of these works are  “Meditation” and Tête à Tête.