Barnes Foundation Is Sole US Venue for Major Exhibition Exploring Works of Anselm Kiefer and Auguste Rodin
Philadelphia – To mark the centennial of Auguste Rodin’s death on November 17, the Barnes Foundation will host the only US presentation of Kiefer Rodin, a major exhibition organized in collaboration with the Musée Rodin in Paris. On view in the Roberts Gallery through March 12, 2018, the exhibition features recent works by renowned contemporary artist Anselm Kiefer that offer a new way of observing and understanding Rodin—alongside works by Rodin, some on view in the US for the first time.
Kiefer Rodin is sponsored by Morgan Stanley. The contributing sponsor is Comcast NBCUniversal.
“Echoed in Kiefer Rodin is Dr. Albert C. Barnes’s belief in the ‘continuity of great art throughout the ages,’ ” says Sylvie Patry, co-curator of the exhibition. “Dr. Barnes viewed artistic expression as an endless conversation between works of different times and places: he collected the work of contemporary artists of his time and hung them alongside African sculptures, Old Master paintings, and Navajo textiles to highlight connections and influences among disparate works of art.
“We continue this tradition today by engaging contemporary artists,” Patry says. “In Kiefer Rodin, the relationship between the work of Anselm Kiefer and Auguste Rodin is fascinating, as is the synergy between their artistic practices and philosophies. Although separated by 100 years, the two artists participate in a dynamic exchange. Kiefer has defined his role in this project as being a ‘wanderer between worlds.’ ”
The exhibition brings together over 100 works, including several large-scale illustrated books by Kiefer (b. 1945) made in homage to Rodin (1840–1917) from materials like plaster; a series of large paintings titled Cathedral Towers; and vitrines filled with assorted objects including molds, dried plants, stones, and pieces of fabric. Also included are sculptures and drawings by Rodin, including rarely displayed plasters.
The works by Kiefer were created specifically for the exhibition in response to sculptures and drawings by Rodin, and catalyzed by the artist’s first encounter with the vastness of Rodin’s oeuvre. In 2013, Kiefer visited the Musée Rodin’s expansive storerooms—home to the artist’s many plaster casts and abattis (sculpture fragments of arms, legs, and heads)—where he was struck by Rodin’s erotically charged drawings and by Cathedrals of France (1914), the only book ever written by the artist. These discoveries were revelatory for Kiefer and introduced him to Rodin’s shared fascination with architecture and ruins as a representation of humanity, as well as his shared approach to art as a constant process of reconfiguring, assembling, and disassembling.
Kiefer Rodin exhibition highlights include:
ANSELM KIEFER
VITRINES
Inspired by Rodin’s plaster casts, abbatis, and sculpture molds, Kiefer appropriated offshoots from Rodin’s work and arranged them with other elements and materials in vitrines. Featured in this exhibition are nearly 20 such vitrines created in 2016, including Dimanche des rameaux (Palm Sunday) and Die Walküren.
PAINTINGS
In his typical process, Kiefer saturates his material with pigments. In the four large-scale paintings featured in this exhibition, including Auguste Rodin: Les Cathédrales de France and A. R. A. K., the layers are broken up and areas of thickness are worked and worked again with earth-toned materials.
BOOKS
Kiefer began to work on Cathedrals of France in 2013 in tribute to Rodin and to the book published by the sculptor in 1914. Kiefer’s books—created using watercolor and pencil on plaster on cardboard—merge with Rodin’s poetic and erotic world. Evanescent female figures emerge from the material through flowing gestures.
AUGUSTE RODIN
WATERCOLORS AND DRAWINGS
Featured in the exhibition will be 17 drawings and watercolors by Rodin, as well as sketchbooks. Rodin’s quick unbroken lines are evident, especially in his rendering of the female body, and every detail is imbued with sensuality.
SCULPTURES
Crouching Woman (1906–08), Meditation without arms (after 1900), Torso of a Young Woman with Arched Back (1909)—these masterpieces demonstrate Rodin’s experimental nature in large-format plaster sculptures and convey his sensual depiction of the female body through raw, fragmented forms.
Also featured in the exhibition are assemblages from Rodin’s studio, including a selection of small sculptures in which Rodin brings together, sometimes playfully, molds from his previous creations, antiques, and discarded materials. These imaginative and surprising combinations create lively, unusual works and introduce the viewer to the intimacy of the artist’s studio.
Central to Kiefer’s artistic practice is the notion of life and art as an endless continuum. Similar to Rodin’s approach to artmaking, Kiefer constantly experiments with different combinations of forms, explores variations on the same theme, and uses diverse, unexpected materials. Both Rodin and Kiefer establish an analogy between architecture—specifically gothic cathedrals—and the human body in their work. Rooted in experimentation, both Kiefer and Rodin’s artistic processes convey a poignant vision of humanity’s spiritual dilemma and our relationship to history. In this exhibition, the contrast of Rodin’s work with Kiefer’s emphasizes Rodin’s modernity and his proximity to contemporary practice.
Philadelphia played an important role in the appreciation of Rodin’s work. His first US exhibition was presented at the Centennial International Exhibition in 1876, and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts brought Rodin’s drawings to the attention of its students in 1905. The Barnes Collection is home to many important works by Rodin’s contemporaries and friends such as Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paul Cézanne, Claude Monet, and Georges Seurat. Rodin also had a profound influence on the watercolors of American artist Charles Demuth—40 of which hang in the Barnes collection.
Kiefer Rodin coincides with the Barnes Foundation’s fifth anniversary on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia. This exhibition, along with many works on view at the Rodin Museum, located directly next to the Barnes on the Parkway, offers an unprecedented, in-depth exploration of Rodin and an opportunity to see the largest gathering of the artist’s work in the US. Kiefer Rodin is part of a worldwide series of major Rodin projects taking place in 2017 commemorating the centennial of the artist’s death and unified through the hashtag #Rodin100. More information is at rodin100.org.
CATALOGUE
Kiefer Rodin is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue, published by the Barnes Foundation, the Musée Rodin, and Gallimard.
EXHIBITION ORGANIZATION
Kiefer Rodin, organized by the Barnes Foundation and the Musée Rodin, Paris, is a curatorial collaboration between Sylvie Patry, consulting curator at the Barnes Foundation and deputy director for curatorial affairs and collections at the Musée d’Orsay, and a team of curators at the Musée Rodin: Catherine Chevillot, director, and Véronique Mattiussi, in charge of the Rodin archives, with the collaboration of Sophie Biass-Fabiani and Hélène Marraud.
SPONSORS
Kiefer Rodin is sponsored by
Morgan Stanley
The contributing sponsor is
Comcast NBCUniversal
Additional support for the exhibition comes from N. Judith Broudy, the Marina Kellen French Foundation, Jane and Leonard Korman, Maribeth and Steven Lerner, and Hilarie and Mitchell Morgan. The exhibition is also made possible by generous annual support from contributors to the Barnes Foundation Exhibition Fund. Additional support is provided by the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, the Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz Exhibition Fund, and The Rittenhouse Hotel.
The exhibition catalogue is made possible with support from the Gagosian Gallery.
ABOUT AUGUSTE RODIN
In a career that spanned the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Auguste Rodin (French, 1840–1917) was deeply inspired by tradition yet rebelled against its idealized forms, introducing innovative practices that paved the way for modern sculpture. He believed that art should be true to nature, a philosophy that shaped his attitudes to models and materials. Many know Rodin for the controversies surrounding certain of his works, such as The Age of Bronze and the Monument to Balzac, and for his unfinished projects, most famously The Gates of Hell. But Rodin’s genius was to express inner truths of the human psyche, and his gaze penetrated beneath the external appearance of the world. Exploring this realm beneath the surface, Rodin developed an agile technique for rendering the extreme physical states that correspond to expressions of inner turmoil or overwhelming joy. He sculpted a universe of great passion and tragedy, a world of imagination that exceeded the mundane reality of everyday existence.
ABOUT ANSELM KIEFER
Anselm Kiefer was born in 1945 in Donaueschingen, Germany, and lives and works in France. His work is collected by museums worldwide. Recent institutional exhibitions include the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, Denmark (2010); Shevirat Hakelim, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Israel (2011); Beyond Landscape, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo (2013); Royal Academy of Arts, London (2014); L’Alchimie du livre, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris (2015); and Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (2015). In 2009, he directed and designed the sets for Am Anfang (In the Beginning) at the Opéra national de Paris. In November 2017, Kiefer will receive the J. Paul Getty Medal for his contribution to the arts.
ABOUT THE BARNES FOUNDATION
The Barnes Foundation engages visitors in an unparalleled art experience that fosters new ways of thinking about human creativity. The Barnes collection is presented in ensembles that integrate art and objects from across cultures and time periods, overturning traditional hierarchies and revealing universal elements of human expression. Home to one of the world’s finest collections of impressionist, post-impressionist, and early modern paintings—including the largest groups of paintings by Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Paul Cézanne in existence—the Barnes shares with the public renowned masterworks by such artists as Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Amedeo Modigliani, and Vincent van Gogh, presented alongside ancient, medieval, Renaissance, and non-Western art as well as metalwork, furniture, and decorative art.
The Barnes Foundation was established by Dr. Albert C. Barnes in 1922 to “promote the advancement of education and the appreciation of the fine arts and horticulture.” Since moving to the heart of Philadelphia in 2012, the Barnes has expanded its commitment to teaching visual literacy in groundbreaking ways, investing in original scholarship relating to its collection and enhancing accessibility throughout every facet of its program.
As the Barnes celebrates five years on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in 2017, the Foundation continues to increase its public programming and initiatives in service to the Philadelphia community, the region, and visitors from across the country and the globe.
The Barnes Foundation is open Wednesday–Monday, and tickets can be purchased on-site, online, or by calling 215.278.7200. Ticket prices and current hours are listed on our website.
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FOR MORE INFORMATION
Deirdre Maher, Director of Communications
215.278.7160, press@barnesfoundation.org
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212.671.5155, aelgarresta@resnicow.com
Chelsea Beroza, Resnicow and Associates
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