Newspaper Page Text
Sculptor Sherry E. Fry’s Remarkable
Presentation of Unfolding Womanhood
and His Personal 7 heories of the NeiV
Need of Education in Love.
By Nina Marbourg
AMERICAN art circles arc discussing with
lively interest the completed “Five Agk >
nf Woman," sculptured by Sherry F. Ft"
end Mr Fry's theories of doruestio Mlnentson
have occasioned scarcely ices of comment.
Mr. Fry rather startles American compla
cency by asking, in effect, Are the women el
America many years behind the rest of the wort 1
in their understanding of love?
Has the education of the women of 11ns coun
try been such that sex consciousness har been les
sened to an extent dangerous to society?
If so, is the state of marriage to be lef her*
tc the foreign population, and are the American
women to continue to regard the serious questitr,
as vulgar, or, absorbed in professional pursuit),
find no time to give to love and marriage'.'
Much is said and written on the matter. But
for all that, the large number of unmarried wom
en in the United States is not being noticeably
cut down. Some have figured out the matter
from a psychological point of view. Others lay :t
to economics and the entrance of women in busi
ness. The late Theodore Roosevelt fought race
suicide with all his might. And it would seem
now that the time had come to fight against the
ever increasing numbers of bachelors and single
women if there is to be a continuation of true
American society.
Studying the Eternal Feminine
Sherry E. Fry, one of America’s leading
sculptors, has given a great dop! of serious
thought and study to this subject. Mr. Fry was
a captain in one of the camouflage divisions dur
ing the war, and having seen and studied women
of other countries, ho is only more strengthened
in his opinion that the American system of edu
cation on the great issues of life, among Ameri
can women, is not only mid-Victorian but is sure
ly a menace to our future civilization.
Mr. Fry is r.oc only a .sculptor but a student
His iong study of art has led him to delve into
tne art of the ancient? and also the histories of
many countries. For the past six years he has
been slowly working out a group of five liguvio
carrying the iife of woman, from childhood to
motherhood. For this he has given much stuuy
to the philosophers both ancient and modern, and
has produced a work that holds a message to the
women and mothers of this time.
These five figures made by Mr. Fry speak out
boldly, perhaps they hold a stronger appeal in
their beautiful modeling and lines than could be
made to the women of the age through pages of
writing. This work is an appeal to the women
to remember their sox, be proud of it rather then
ashamed.
It was in Mr. Fry’s studio at 21 Carmine
street in New York's Latin quarter “hat he
talked on the subject of this work. The next to
the last figure lie is just completing. This wai
left unfinished when he went, to war, and Is now
receiving the last touches. t
‘‘The question," said Mr. Fry, "of the obliga
tions of men and women toward one another and
to society has been one that has interested mo In
tensely. The education of women in such mat
ters is vital to society, every person capable of
thinking at all knows that marriage i 3 necessary
for the continuance of the race, and without this
our society degenerate ;.
Danger of Repression
“It seems to me that the whole matter centre*
around repression. Repression not only of de
sires but of thought and understanding. In thu
we have the most striking instance of the sur
vival of the Puritanical strain in the American
mind. Hide, cover up, do not speak with your
daughters of love, marriage, child birth—am) if
you clo speak of these things do so in hushed,
r.shamed tones. Do not properly prepare them
for the world. Keep them ign want of the great
t.r. thing ip the world—sex consciousness and love.
“That i.. the method that is being pursued,
rnd has boon pursued for years and years i.: chi ;
country, an i now, as never before, the dangerous
result of this training is being seen.
“At one time women had to many because
they wore not in a position to be economically in
dependent. Hut even at that time they were kept
.a a state 01 ridiculous ignorance until their mar
riage. Nov: that many arc independent as fur m
money i§ concerned, that old and deep training of
repression is coming out strong, and in a year
you cannot change a state of mind that has been
lire i for g; aerations. The result r that the
business woman is not marrying, her rex con
“Motherhood."
“The Oiienng ol I .ov «*.”
fc V|^njw^‘- i'fcr’.. j. A ts 4 v -.;'“ ; -ik4i ' sS.'\
sciousness is being repressed, and to
a greater extent than ever before,
for she will tell you plainly that she
‘has no time to think of love or
romance,’ ami many, many women
will tell you today that they have
never been in love, and hope they
never will be.
The Effect on Society
“That is one side of what the re
pression for generations has done to
the society of today. But there is
another side, that means that hun
dreds of women are taking the other
extreme, equally upsetting to soci
ety, and that is radicalism and free
love. These two factions in society,
the ‘conservatives’ and the ‘indi
vidualists,’ are dominant at present,
and it is only through education
Sherry E. Fry, Sculptor.
Jfc y
'< ’ Jr
~i tie Awakening.”
say lessen the repression. That is not it. 1 eno
think of no better example than the women of
foreign countries.
"The girls of those countries have been edu
cated to know that in love and rex consciousness
there is nothing wrong; nothing ‘bad.’ They do
not wear their hearts on their sleeves. They may
outwardly restrain their emotions, but as surely
as you are here, they have been taught that love
is the greatest thing in the world, that it is the
ultimate thing, and have been so prepared for its
coming that they radiate a gentle, suppressed
glow, the thing that means the great feminine
appeal. They are not on the defensive; they are
not always on guard watching for situations that
would prove uncomfortable, neither do they
throw down the bars of convention. These wom
en have been so reared and educated that in them
one sees the finest of examples of repression of
the right sort, and this Is the thing that must
come to America.
"In the work that I have just completed 1
have given a great deal of thought and study.
For this I early decided that it would be impo ,: i
ble to use a model arid obtain the desired r< :ult,
Using a model destroyed the ideal. 1 desired to
follow the development of the woman from child
hood to motherhood as it seems to me that it
should develop. One could not select a child and
wait for this, and if he did begin to do so, espe
dally in tills day and age, the result might have
been decidedly opposite to the one 1 hat'e tie d
to attain. In fact such a thing would be impos
sible; so 1 studied and worked, and 1 have en
deavored to give the amount of repression to the
modeling that imparts the spiritual and intel
lectual development of the woman.
Beginning with the Child
“This possibility of development is in every
woman who is truly feminine. If you watch you
will sec the woman unfold like a beautiful flower.
If her surroundings are right, her education clean
and pure, without the drawing of the curium over
the great things of life, all this will come natur
ally.
“Of course one begins with the child the un
awakened little soul, the clean white sheet ready
to record impressions. The child grows, and from
the little girl one suddenly finds before him a
r>ud, delicate, flushed, on the brink of the great
“It seems to me that the v/hole matter centres around repression. Re
pression not only of desires but of thought and understanding. In this we have
the most striking instance of the survival of the Puritanical strain in the Ameri
can mind. Hide, cover up, do not speak with your daughters of love, mar
riage, childbirth—and if you do speak of these things do so in hushed, ashamed
tones. Do not properly prepare them for the world. Keep them ignorant of
the greatest thing in the world—sex consciousness and love.”
that matters may be
righted.
“I)o not think for a
moment that I men:
all restraint is to be
thrown aside when 1
A
i, *' \Y
- J.
“Fulfillment.”
beginning of life, and here at this first dawninz
of sex consri lusneas when tiie education of this
delicate creature should be most natural, here at
this critical time the curtain is drawn close.y
over ‘life’ and the repression Is doubled. Ideally
this bud should gradually, naturally unfold until
we have the young woman ready and waiting
for love. As the (lower unfolds in the light, so
docs the woman’s nature unfold, and as thu flower
cflers its petals to the sun, so does she offer her
self to love.
“You may see this in young women if you
study them, and when education has been right,
when the right repression has been taught, they
arc wondciful in the sweet repose and waiting.
When such has not occurred there is a restless
nervoumc?•; that many times drives away love;
at this period in woman's development comes the
turning point and at this turning point in the
American woman thu ‘career’ has stepped in to
kill the longing for affection.
"And now love has come. She draws about
her a veil of mystery, calm, content, marvelling
at the world about her; she is confident of tbs
beauty of the world, the greatness of lovo.
“This complete round of her life comes with
mol hci hood. Once again begins the wonder of
th< world. Her child, the wonder, the marvel, the
beauty of it all. Here is fulfillment,completeness.
"Tills is the beauty of woman as I see it, the
true course of life. Thnt such a beautiful un
folding should he stunted by economic conditions,
by wrong education is a great crime, and a crime
against the men and women of a country that will
be felt as surely ns the world moves by any na
tion that cannot or will not learn the great Im
portance of the education of the young men and
young women concerning the great issues of life* 1 *
"’"'T