Starting with Rodin

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André Kertész, "Satiric Dancer, Paris", 1926

silver print on paper, 25.2 x 20.3 cm.

The exhibition celebrates several recent donations to the Winnipeg Art Gallery, chiefly the French sculptor’s major bronze Danaïde (1889-90) from the Salgo Trust for Education, New York. Danaïde was initially modeled for inclusion in Rodin’s monumental Gates of Hell (1880-1917), but ultimately was left freestanding and unincorporated. The bronze depicts, with a frank eroticism that is still shocking, a femme fatal who, according to Greek mythology, murders her husband. 

Rodin’s work is rife with classical references, and this exhibition brings together a wide range of experiences: artists and artisans from antique Rome, the Austrian Baroque (Paul Strudel), and French Neo-Classicism (Jean-Bertrand Andrieu), who through their rendering of the human form, anticipate the French artist’s singular approach. However, through his emphasis on the fragment, the erotic, and an aesthetic of the “unfinished,” Rodin is also widely credited as initiating modern sculpture. Visitors will also encounter the work of artists such as Florence Wyle, Henry Moore, Étienne Béothy, and other examples of European and Canadian Modernism.