Rodin at the Bellas Artes...

2:50 p.m.

01/22/18 - The year 2017 marked the 100th anniversary of the death of French sculptor Auguste Rodin (1840-1917). Many museums displayed the artworks in their collections as a tribute and, of course, the Bellas Artes was also part of the celebrations. You can still visit “Rodin, Centenario en BellasArtes”, which presents the pieces belonging to the Museum’s permanent collection. Two sculptures stand out: “The Earth and the Moon” and “The kiss”. Both are disruptive works in Rodin’s production, since they left behind centuries of figurative tradition, to push the boundaries into modernity. The paradox is that Rodin was inspired by Michelangelo’s latest works. So we could say the the master of the 1500 was the key to open Rodin’s door into the 20th century.

Rodin was born into a middle class family. In his youth he began working at an atelier for architectural ornamentations. Far from the privileged ones able to attend the Academy, from which he was rejected three times, he developed an interest for the human figure unlike those of the vanguards. Doomed to independent training, he survived working as an artisan in Belgium for a while. But it was in a trip to Italy, in 1875, that he came across the Michelangelo’s pieces that sparked his imagination. Rodin was ready, then, to return to Paris. But things weren’t easy for him, singled out as archaic due to his interest in mythology in a time for Modernity. However, his fierceness to preserve the past, combined with absolute audacity, transformed him into a master of visual communication. His powerful and expressive bodies question us with their story and they made of Rodin the sculptor of the 20th century.