Now they are talking of him as of
the father of modern sculpture and the most influential artist of all times.
Portland Art Museum pioneered the Roden100 relay race in the USA. It is the first institution in the country receiving the traveling exhibition Rodin: The Human Experience, comprising 52 bronze works by the sculptor.
This collection demonstrates the particular passion of the artist for modeling the human form in clay, the medium that most clearly reveals his creative process and way of thinking.
Left: Auguste Rodin, Fallen Caryatid with Urn, modeled 1883.
The exhibition includes studies and details for The Burghers of Calais, as well as works derived from his masterpiece, The Gates of Hell. The viewers have a chance to familiarize with experimentation done by Rodin when assembling his The Night (Double Figure) and Monumental Torso of the Walking Man, which demonstrate Rodin’s admiration for Michelangelo, and also the Dance Movement D, which speaks to his interest in understanding how the body moved.
The exhibition is especially rich in portraiture. There are depictions of the writers Victor Hugo and Honoré de Balzac; the composer Gustav Mahler; the artist Claude Lorraine; and one of Rodin’s favorite dancers, Hanako. This group includes also his The Hand of God, which is likely a self-portrait.
Left: Auguste Rodin, Monumental Torso of the Walking Man, 1879.
The Hand of God,
Here you can admire Rodin’s sculptures The Minotaur, I am Beautiful, Eternal Springtime and Youth Triumphant. The model of The Kiss in marble, commissioned by Jules Mastbaum in 1926 for the Philadelphia Museum, will be given pride of place. You can also find The Thinker and the Monument to Balzac in here.
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco will present its collection of the French Master in a new context. Approximately 50 objects in bronze, marble, and plaster will show life and work of the artist from his early experiments. Auguste Rodin: The Centenary Installation will embrace all legacy of "the father of modern sculpture." Exhibition will be on view until April, 9, 2017.
It will be followed by the unique dialogue between Rodin’s masterpieces and works by Gustav Klimt, another great fin-de-siècle Austrian master of Modernism. Exhibition Gustav Klimt & Auguste Rodin: A Turning Point will be on view October 14, 2017-January 28, 2018.
Left: Auguste Rodin, "The Thinker," c. 1880, cast c. 1904. Bronze. Placed in front of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco.
Main illustration: exhibit from Rodin: The Human Experience at Portland Art Museum, USA.
Photo: portlandartmuseum.org.
