Rodin & Dance: The Essence of Movement
- Organised in collaboration with the Musée Rodin in Paris, The Courtauld Gallery presents Rodin & Dance: The Essence of Movement, the first major research-led exhibition in the UK devoted to the Dance Movements series, a little-known experimental body of work made by Rodin in the last two decades of his life
- New findings challenge the traditional understanding of how Rodin made his late studies of dancers
- This exhibition provides a rare glimpse into Rodin’s passion for the avant-garde dance forms appearing on the Parisian stage around 1900
- The exhibition runs from 20 October 2016 – 22 January 2017 at The Courtauld Gallery, Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 0RN
- The breakfast press preview is on Wednesday 19 October, 9am – 11am.
The Courtauld Gallery presents Rodin & Dance: The Essence of Movement, the first major exhibition in the UK to explore Auguste Rodin’s fascination with dance and bodies captured in extreme acrobatic poses. This exhibition focuses on the remarkable series of small-scale experimental sculptures known as the Mouvements de danse (Dance Movements), which were unknown outside of the artist’s close circle.
By 1900, Rodin (1840-1917) was considered France’s greatest living artist. He spent a great part of his later years producing bronzes and marbles of his most famous works for commissions around the world. However, from the mid 1890s his practice also took a more intimate turn, developing his long-term passion for capturing expressive movement. Unlike anything else in Rodin’s creative output, these sculptures are a modern response to the new forms of dance that had taken Paris by storm.
This in-depth scholarly exhibition of Rodin’s Dance Movements is the first time such a comprehensive selection of the works has been shown. The exhibition explores the encounters in Rodin’s life that provided the inspiration for the studies, from the visiting troupes of Javanese and Cambodian dancers that enthralled France with entirely unknown traditions of movement and gesture, to the many performers and entertainers who posed for him in the privacy of his studio. Among the photographs included in the exhibition are those of the dancers Loie Fuller and Isadora Duncan, stars of the early 20th century, along with drawings of the Japanese performer Hanako, who stunned audiences in Paris and London with her anguished performances of Japanese ritual suicide, or Hari-kiri. New research has confirmed that the direct inspiration for the Dance Movements was an acrobatic dancer and artists' model called Alda Moreno. A great many drawings of Moreno by Rodin are known, firmly establishing a chronology for the series and a direct link to many of the works on view.
Rodin transformed his studies of Moreno and other acrobatic models of the early 1900s into a series of leaping and twisting terracotta and plaster figurines. Focusing on his interest in capturing the human form in motion, these works appear to push beyond the constraints of anatomy into a realm of pure artistic experiment and creativity. Many of the final works do not have an obvious orientation and the careful placement of each piece in the exhibition allows the visitor to consider the individual dancers from several different viewpoints. While many of the drawings of dancers were exhibited within Rodin’s lifetime, the sculptures were seen only by his very closest circle of friends and supporters . They may now be considered his last major project, reflecting how the final years of his life were a period of continued experimentation.
New technical analysis undertaken by researchers and curators at the Courtauld Gallery and the Musée Rodin challenges established ideas about Rodin’s late methods. He cast a set of identical torsos, limbs and heads in clay, which he then assembled and shaped while wet into their exaggerated acrobatic feats of athleticism. Nine of the moulds used by Rodin to make the Dance Movements will be on display, illustrating his highly experimental process of casting multiples and re-combining these pieces in different configurations to make new works of art.
Rodin was preoccupied in his later years with the challenges of expressing and incorporating movement in sculptural form, attempting to create a new type of artwork in response to the emerging dance movements he admired. The exhibition examines how integrally connected his practice of drawing and sculpture were in this later period, each informing the other.
Rodin & Dance: The Essence of Movement at The Courtauld Gallery will present over 40 drawings and 23 sculptures alongside contextual photographs and archives. It reveals a new side to Rodin’s art, exploring the ways in which he pushed the boundaries of modern sculpture and sought to capture the very essence of movement and physical expression.
Organised in collaboration with the Musée Rodin, Paris.
- ENDS -
Contacts
For further press information please contact Anya Harrison at Kallaway PR
anya.harrison@kallaway.com |courtauld@kallaway.com
+44 (0)20 7221 7883
The Courtauld Gallery
Emily Butcher
emily.butcher@courtauld.ac.uk
+44 (0)20 7848 1149
Notes to Editors and Ticket Information
Opening Times
Daily 10am – 6pm (last admission 5.30pm)
Admission
£9 with the permanent collection (concessions available)
*Price includes a £1 voluntary donation to The Courtauld Institute of Art
Friends of The Courtauld Gallery can enjoy a year of free entry to our exhibitions and displays, including Rodin & Dance: The Essence of Movement and much more. Friends can bring a guest for free.
About The Courtauld Gallery
The Courtauld Gallery is one of London’s must-see art museums. Its collection stretches from the early Renaissance to the 20th century and beyond. It is displayed in the elegant setting of Somerset House, one of the city’s most dynamic cultural venues. The Courtauld Gallery is renowned for its unrivalled Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings, including masterpieces by Monet, Van Gogh and Gauguin and the largest collection of Cézannes in the UK.
The Gallery is at the heart of The Courtauld Institute of Art, one of the world’s leading centres for the study of art history and conservation.
“One of the world's great collections of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art”
- The Guardian
About the Musée Rodin
The Musée Rodin, which opened in 1919, houses the largest collection of works by Auguste Rodin. The International renown of the artist who created such world-famous sculptures as The Thinker and The Kiss contributes to the museum’s reputation. Under the supervision of the French Ministry of Culture, the museum is the only non-subsidised national museum in France. It has two sites: The Hôtel Biron in Paris, and the Musée Rodin in Meudon.
The Hôtel Biron – a jewel of rocaille architecture – and its three-hectare sculpture garden form a remarkable setting in the heart of Paris. After a complete restoration over more than three years, it reopened in 2015. The revised layout sheds new light on the collections, with a visit structured around the artist’s creative process.
The Musée Rodin in Meudon, the artist’s last home, gives a more intimate view of his life and work, and presents a large selection of original plasters.