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LIFE
Page 5 Vol. 5, No. 19 REG. U. L. Pat. Off.  November 7, 1938

SPEAKING OF PICTURES...
...MODERN SCULPTURE MAKES PICTURE NEWS


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Alice Decker's "Scrubwoman," Cared from Pale Lime Wood

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Dina Melicov's "Girl on a Horse," in Cast Aluminum

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Brooklyn Housewife Holding Marked Exhibition Catalog Smiles at Louise Cross's Chunky Opera Singer, in Dark Walnut

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If 20 years ago the statues shown on these pages had been publicly exhibited, all but an esoteric few would have called them crazy.  But when these figures were shown at the Brooklyn Museum by the Sculptors' Guild, about 25,000 people went to see them in the first two weeks.  May were puzzled (see p.7) but nobody laughed.

The spirit of revolt which overtook literature and painting 20 years ago, was also felt in sculpture.  But long after the new-school writers and painters had carried the day, the modern sculptors were still isolated rebels against a firmly established academic school.  Within the last few years, however, they have so increased their prestige that today the modern and not the classic is the dominant school of sculpture in America.  At next year's two great fairs, moderns wil hold the field unchallenged.

Today's modern sculptors are still experimenting.  On much of their work the verdict of time will probably be that it is valueless and silly.  But no great art arises without experiment and out of these early efforts may some day come a sculpture to rank with that of ancient Greece.

The great sculptors of the past were representational in their work because
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