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Henry Moore Institute and Kettle's Yard publish a new edition of Jim Ede's classic book, based on the life of Henri Gaudier-Brzeska.

Henri Gaudier-Brzeska was one of the leading figures of European avant-garde sculpture. Born Henri Gaudier, he moved from Paris to London in 1911 living with his partner, Sophie Brzeska, a Polish author twenty years his senior.

Gaudier played an important role in the development of British sculpture, and worked alongside Ezra Pound, Jacob Epstein and Wyndham Lewis amongst others. He was affiliated with the Vorticism movement and the Omega Workshop.

Like many artists of his generation, his career was tragically cut short by the war. Having volunteered for the French army in the summer of 1914, he was killed in action the following year, aged twenty-three. Sophie Brzeska never recovered from Gaudier's death, and spent her final years in an asylum, dying in 1925.

In 1930 H. S. Ede (the founder of Kettle's Yard), who three years earlier had acquired almost all of Gaudier's work, published a biography of the sculptor. Entitled A Life of Gaudier-Brzeska, the book was re-issued a year later with the new title Savage Messiah. Ede's book played an important role in re-establishing Gaudier's reputation at a time when he was at risk of fading into obscurity.

Savage Messiah charts Sophie Brzeska and Henri Gaudier's volatile relationship through letters written to each other and to friends. Through this correspondence Ede builds a bohemian love story; a tale of art and romance bound by social convention. Ede's biography has been central in transmitting an image of the work and life of Henri Gaudier-Brzeska for subsequent generations. The book became the basis for British Filmmaker Ken Russell's eponymous 1972 film, with Christopher Logue writing the screenplay.

This new hardback edition of Savage Messiah, published in collaboration with Kettle's Yard, Cambridge, reprints Ede's original text alongside previously unpublished illustrations, new footnotes, appendices and scholarly essays that contextualise the book.

Savage Messiah is the culmination of extensive research by staff at the Henry Moore Institute and Kettle's Yard which draws uniquely from the 1929 manuscript version of Ede's book, now in the archive at the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds, reproducing many of the Gaudier drawings and photographs first used (or intended for use) by Ede.

 

Points of Interest:

• The American edition in 1931 sold over 80,000 copies and continued to be reprinted and reissued over eighty years
• Ken Russell will introduce his film Savage Messiah at the Hyde Park Picture House, Leeds, on Weds 22 June, as part of a one day symposium on Gaudier-Brzeska at the Henry Moore Institute
• Savage Messiah: The Creation of Henri Gaudier-Brzeska is an exhibition at the Henry Moore Institute that runs until 31 July. It displays the original Ede manuscript from 1929, film stills from Ken Russell's film, and Gaudier-Brzeska's portrait bust of Horace Brodzky
• 2011 marks the centenary of Gaudier-Brzeska's arrival in London
• Tate Britain's The Vorticists: Manifesto for a Modern World exhibition opens in June 2011, which includes several works by Gaudier-Brzeska

 

Publication Details:

Title: Savage Messiah: A Biography of the Sculptor Henri Gaudier-Brzeska

Author: H.S. Ede

Essays: Sebastiano Barassi, Evelyn Silber, Jon Wood

Release Date: May 2011

Publisher: Henry Moore Institute and Kettle's Yard

Format: Hardback, 320pp, 88 illustrations (24 colour)

Price: £25.00 / ISBN: 978-1-905462-34-6

Retail: Available from the Henry Moore Institute bookshop via http://www.henry-moore.org/hmf/shop