[The following edited excerpt is taken from the one-hundred-and-twenty-ninth chapter of D H Laven’s historic work-in-progress ‘The Story of Forgotten Art’. In the introduction to this pioneering work he writes: ‘There is no such thing as forgotten art. There are only forgotten artists. And a hell of a lot of them too’. In this passage he looks at the relationship between the German-American sculptor Basil Harker and the life cycle of a North American cicada.]
There are only four known sculptures by the German-American sculptor Basil Harker. I say ‘known’; in fact, Harker’s oeuvre is not widely recognised at all, owing to the fact it is so small. There are two further impediments; a couple more trees blocking the highway of public interest; a final pair of flies swimming in the habitual ointment. Firstly, Harker’s four pieces are strikingly similar. Secondly, they were created seventeen years apart.
By now it should be clear that Mr Harker was never what you would call a ‘prolific producer’. To call him a professional sculptor might seem, to some, to be stretching the rules. One man cannot live on four sculptures alone, can he? It seems he can. True: his father’s copious fortune (made in the guano shipping business) helped keep several wolves from the door – although by all accounts Harker’s existence remained a frugal one. He did not have expensive tastes. He lived to sculpt, that is all.
So why so few sculptures? And why did it take seventeen years to make each one? Read the rest of this entry »
