Rodin / Bourdelle. Body to Body
Antoine Bourdelle (1861-1929) admired Auguste Rodin (1840-1917), who was 20 years his senior. Rodin gave his support to Bourdelle. Bourdelle was Rodin鈥檚 skilled assistant, carving marble for him and completing practical tasks for him. Rodin was Bourdelle鈥檚 best man at his wedding. Bourdelle painted a portrait of this master, this 鈥渙ld Faun鈥� as he liked to call him. In this heir, who was often unruly, the master saw a 鈥減ioneer of the future鈥�. Bourdelle wrote about Rodin. Rodin praised Bourdelle鈥檚 works. The two men exchanged letters and works, as well as ideas.
This chiastic relationship tells us all we need to know about the intensity of the bonds that united these two artists whose careers, as well as their lives, were intertwined. What鈥檚 more, they were associated with personalities who, from Camille Claudel to Isadora Duncan, crossed paths with both of them. Given how their respective journeys ran along parallel lines, which often merged with each other, it made sense to devote a major exhibition to them. Through its unprecedented ambition and scope, the showdown will finally demonstrate the connections and reciprocities as well as the differences of opinion and antagonisms of two creators, two artistic worlds, thereby heralding the major challenges of modernity, i.e. the rejection of naturalism and verisimilitude, a return to the origins of antiquity and raw materials, the expressionism of modelling, the aesthetics of the fragment, hybridisation and the poetics of the assembly, a reflection on the foundation and the monumental, the autonomy of sculpture and the desire for refinement which will open the way to abstraction.
Composed of more than 170 works (sculptures and drawings as well as photographs and archives), this confrontation between two great masters of sculpture is a unique opportunity to explore almost 50 years of creation 鈥� shared or intersecting 鈥� while also exploring their heritage among artists, including Chana Orloff, Ossip Zadkine and Germaine Richier, who would start a new chapter in the history of modern sculpture following in their footsteps.
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Antoine Bourdelle (1861-1929) admired Auguste Rodin (1840-1917), who was 20 years his senior. Rodin gave his support to Bourdelle. Bourdelle was Rodin鈥檚 skilled assistant, carving marble for him and completing practical tasks for him. Rodin was Bourdelle鈥檚 best man at his wedding. Bourdelle painted a portrait of this master, this 鈥渙ld Faun鈥� as he liked to call him. In this heir, who was often unruly, the master saw a 鈥減ioneer of the future鈥�. Bourdelle wrote about Rodin. Rodin praised Bourdelle鈥檚 works. The two men exchanged letters and works, as well as ideas.
This chiastic relationship tells us all we need to know about the intensity of the bonds that united these two artists whose careers, as well as their lives, were intertwined. What鈥檚 more, they were associated with personalities who, from Camille Claudel to Isadora Duncan, crossed paths with both of them. Given how their respective journeys ran along parallel lines, which often merged with each other, it made sense to devote a major exhibition to them. Through its unprecedented ambition and scope, the showdown will finally demonstrate the connections and reciprocities as well as the differences of opinion and antagonisms of two creators, two artistic worlds, thereby heralding the major challenges of modernity, i.e. the rejection of naturalism and verisimilitude, a return to the origins of antiquity and raw materials, the expressionism of modelling, the aesthetics of the fragment, hybridisation and the poetics of the assembly, a reflection on the foundation and the monumental, the autonomy of sculpture and the desire for refinement which will open the way to abstraction.
Composed of more than 170 works (sculptures and drawings as well as photographs and archives), this confrontation between two great masters of sculpture is a unique opportunity to explore almost 50 years of creation 鈥� shared or intersecting 鈥� while also exploring their heritage among artists, including Chana Orloff, Ossip Zadkine and Germaine Richier, who would start a new chapter in the history of modern sculpture following in their footsteps.
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