Since the opening of its first exhibition “Chagall: Magician of Color” in 2004, the Hankook Ilbo has been constantly organizing landmark exhibitions of world-renowned artists such as Picasso, Monet, Van Gogh and Renoir, helping the people get more familiar to art. As an extension of these successive events, with great anticipation and excitement, we would like to invite you to the upcoming extravaganza, “Rodin: Retrospective.” A must-see event dedicated to the world-famous sculptor, Auguste Rodin, the exhibition will be held at the Seoul Museum of Art from Apr. 30 to Aug. 22, 2010 in collaboration with KBS (Korean Broadcasting System).
Rodin, who has been praised as “Michelangelo Reincarnated” or the progenitor of modern sculpture, successfully converted lifeless materials into sculptures imbued with delicate human feelings such as passion, agony, love and hatred. He accomplished the process passionately and emotionally and, indeed, kept same attitude to his private life.
Surely, his art can not be interpreted without knowing the artist’s personal relationships. The love affair with his pupil Camille Claudel, often depicted as complicated but ardent love, is even understood as a part of his genius. As a consequence, Passion and Love are the key elements that fulfilled Rodin’s affinity for art. One of the Rodin’s biggest accomplishments a historical change to the period of radical upheaval in the late 19th century art. He upgraded the status of sculpture that had long been downgraded to a decorative public monument since the Renaissance to a higher one, an independent place where only pure and creative works can stand.
In the process of questioning and answering ‘what made Rodin a great sculptor?’ his talent and artistic originality are the chief elements to be emphasized. These two keywords not solely earned Rodin a world-wide fame, but also enabled him to realize the idiosyncratic harmonization of both composition and abstraction, especially shown in Balzac. With his dynamic sculptures, the combination of body and soul in human figure, Rodin is still extolled as a pathfinder and precursor of modern sculpture.
As a first retrospective of Rodin in Korea, this exhibition offers a unique opportunity to gain a thorough insight into life and career of the artist, who is second to none in modern sculpture. Here, visitors will meet what has Rodin left behind, works executed in pursuance of realizing not solely the human figures but also the realm of God.