Queensland Art Gallery Presscuttings Book 8 : Pressclippings, 1977-1981

. ·: .... ~, .. THE COURIER-MAI L SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 1979 Rodin • • Important exhibi– tions come and go, but now we arc fortunate to have a return visit, after 12 years, of the impor- tant exhibition Rodin and His Contemporaries. the "Rodin revival" over the last 30 years, and indeed, one may say that Rodin has even more 10 say to us today than he did I2 years ago. In the intervening per-· iod the pendulum has swung very strongly in favour of passionate invol– vement with the human condition. As the past is constantly subject to rcvi- The Exhibition property sion in the light of the of The Peter Stuyvesant . present, Rodin's cxcep– Cultural Foundation tional power to commun-. which is on its nation-wide icate deep concern with tour, is showing at the humanity and Queensland Art Gallery psychological understand– until September 18. mg of every nuance of Much has been made of human feeling, he is ,·cry Artists praised RNA ort judge ond director of the Ouccns– lond Art Galle,y, Mr Rooul Mellish, today urged Brisbane artists to look to the exhibition as on ideal time to exhibit their works and compete for prizes. Mr Mellish sn id while the stnndn rd or work en– t.cred In the four sect ions this ycnr wns h igh. it was a pity not more good II rt - ists contributed. ''Th e exhibition presents n golden op– poru1111t,r for up nntl coming artists lo sec their work assessed, fHH.I have IL on view to n wide cross-section off the pub– lic," he snid. · ' A hett.cr response would be more worth\' of the prizes offcrc<l." · Mr Mell ish paid trlbnte lo fine arts steward, the lalc Mr Vern Thurecht, . :;-_~. <( t·,·, .. ·,.; ':(_'. , ·-.: . ~ .· .. ~ • a lot to say (ART REVIEW by Dr. Gertrude Langer-) lineage with the grea• Gothic sculptors, wit Michelangelo, and abov all, with the late works o valid to us today. seen in many cities of t!te Donatello. A~d. csp~cially, as world; but only nin,· ;cars But this lineage wos not Rodm as not JUSt a master after Ri-din 's death was the fashion of Rodin's uf the meaningful gesture thr monument placed days, and he had 10 react and expression, liu, .where he had required. against a taste debased by because of the expressive- The Burghers of Calais an insipid academic ncss of his modelling speak tu people all over classicism. itself. the world today because We sec here a cast of It is his genius which the medieval story of the many studies Rodin enabled him to make e,rry sacrifice, grief and despair 'did for his Balazac.The ripple or a muscle at the has been repeating itself :final version, which was same time part or a again and again, and has never cast during Rodin's spiritual, psychological ex- never been told more lifetime, is now considered prossion, and also at the poig~antly than by a milestone of modern same lime, part nr the Rodtn. sculpture, purely plastic cxpre,\ivt~ Of course, inthiscxhibi- ness or the total form. lion we have only four Casts of The Burghers small-scale figures of the · of Calais (the first sculp- many preparations Rodin lure of modern times did for the life-size figures, taken off its pedestal and but Cl'Cn ,o they make a put at the same level strong impact. with the living) arc to be Rodin was proud of his 0000 Here we also see other portraits of profound inner trul h, such as the head of Baudelaire; admirable tor– sos (which were unaccept– able to the general public of Rodin's time (although they accepted antique 'torsos). such as The Walk– ing Man, a study for St. John Baptist - ewen more powerful than the complet– ed stutuo, as newer before in history had a sculptor gh'on so much spiritual expressiveness to the pro– ~rL>ssi,e mowement or walking. There aculous stat uettes dancers (Rodin called them his "snakes") which have such a tense energy, they virtually spring to life. Eight watercolor draw– ings of Rodin show all his exquisite understanding of the human body and delicacy in that medium. We have no evidence that Rodin, in his later years, look notice of the rising younger generation of artists, such as Picasso, Matisse, etc. Some of the sculptors represented here with either Rodin's satellites or admirers, and even Pi as– so·s Head of Fernande Olivier indica tcs some dependence on Rodi n bv PicJs,o in hi, scul pture's at that Lime ( I 905 ). 0000 However, marvellous (origina l cas t 111 th e Louvre) is a fore runner of Rodin, as \\ell as uf Expressionism. Uourdolle's Tra~ic llla,k of lkothm·cn is one or his grcalt.'!-o( \\ork!-i, pos,ihly innuencod hy llodin. Maillol and D•· s11i11u follo,.cd their own path, hut there "as mutual admiration. ~lcdardo Ro,. o fell out with his friend, Rodin, over an a rgument as to who was the first who introduced Impressionism intosculpture. I cannot sec that the term Impression– ism fits nt all Rodin's greatest works; Expres– sionism docs. Remember it was Rodin himself who snid ·thnt he modelled ,hadows to thoughts.