Shockless Sculptor

King Alfonso XIII seldom visits Barcelona, though it is one of Spain's important cities and he has there a sumptuous palace with a plenitude of peacocks. He avoids it because the Catalans, no lovers of the monarchy, think nothing of regicide and occasionally throw bombs at royal persons. They are revolutionaries to a man and their principal city is a fester of social and political unrest. Jose de Creeft, sculptor, is no exception. Born in Guadalajara, he studied in Barcelona and has been an art-rebel since his early days. He shocked and amused Paris with his many sculptural stunts: a picador astride, concocted with stovepipes, pot scrapers, an egg beater, some fuzz and the lid of a pan; a statue of a cat and a woman made into one (called La Femme-Chatte), and a wire ostrich. His taille directe method (the cutting of a sculpture directly from its material without rehearsals in clay-- "the releasing of the form from the fundamental block") has caused many a contemporary to imitate him.

Recently Sculptor de Creeft, now middle-aged though vigorous, arrived in the U. S. He brought with him a large collection of his sculptures which were last week exhibited in Manhattan. The picador, the ostrich, La Femme-Chatte, were absent; Sculptor de Creeft no longer seeks to shock. Instead, he exhibited his taille directe with rosy granite, and black onyx shaped for shape rather than excitement --gigantic heads, writhing nudes, an orchid of beaten lead. He wants to be respectable. He has married his onetime pupil, Alice Carr of Seattle. He wants commissions, he hopes to sell, make money.

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