Fed: Rodin exhibition arrives in Canberra

AAP General News (Australia)
12-13-2001
Fed: Rodin exhibition arrives in Canberra

By Sharon Mathieson

CANBERRA, Dec 13 AAP - Canberra has joined the likes of Vienna, Florence and Paris
in hosting two of the world's greatest sculptures - Rodin's The Thinker and The Kiss.

Rodin: A Magnificent Obsession opens at the National Gallery of Australia tomorrow,
featuring more than 80 bronzes, from intimate studies to monumental works.

Arguably the most impressive inclusion is a two-metre high, 909-kilogram reproduction
of The Thinker (1880), a representation of creativity, intellect and thought.

It's the biggest collection of the French master's work to be exhibited in Australia
and is supplemented by a selection of Rodin's drawings on loan from the Musee Rodin in
Paris.

Rodin is the only sculptor of the modern age placed on a par with Michaelangelo and
is commonly regarded as the man who paved the way for 20th century sculptors, Gallery
director Brian Kennedy said.

"Few artists have been more contested, or indeed more insulted, than Rodin," Dr Kennedy said.

"It's also true that few artists have had more ardent admirers."

He said despite the criticism Rodin received in the late 1800s, including from the
French government, he persisted to argue the freedom of the artist to create as he wished.

Assistant Curator Lucina Ward said Rodin's desire to make his art accessible meant
there were hundreds of reproductions, many of them enlarged, of his most famous works
around the world.

"Most of these works are not unique and the whole process of a 19th century sculptor
working in an age of mechanical reproduction is not unusual," Ms Ward said.

"But what's much more unusual for a 19th century sculptor, and Rodin in particular,
is to make an enlargement of a work."

Ms Ward said Rodin's working methods were also unconventional.

"He championed the idea that a partial figure, such as a torso or hand, could be a
complete, independent work of art," she said.

The exhibition includes the heroic Saint John the Baptist Preaching (1880), a full
range of studies for projects such as The gates of hell (1880-1900), The burghers of Calais
(1884-95) and The monument to Balzac (1891-97).

Ms Ward said it had been an extraordinary logistical feat to put together the Rodin
exhibition, given the weight and size of the sculptures.

The exhibition opens tomorrow and runs until February 24.

AAP sm/daw/mjm/de

KEYWORD: RODIN (PICS AVAILABLE)

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