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Antony Gormley sculptures at the Rodin Museum

The Rodin Museum opens its doors to the British artist Antony Gormley, an explorer for over forty years of the interactions between man and his environment, through the prism of the human body.


Date: From October 17, 2023 to March 3, 2024

Desires: P Rodin, Gormley, sculpture, human, mirroring





“The reason Rodin remains an essential source of inspiration and renewal for sculpture is the way he liberated it by combining techniques and materials both ancient and modern in an extraordinarily premonitory way. Through his innovations, the father of modern sculpture took the freedom to experiment to the limit, he used new reproduction techniques made possible in his time by industrial development. I consider Critical Mass II to be the most successful example of my attempt to restore life and its place to the body in the art of sculpture. »
Antony Gormley
Antony Gormley sculptures at the Rodin Museum
Antony Gormley Sculptures

Called "Critical Mass", this exhibition extends across all facets of the museum, from the garden to the temporary exhibition room, from the marble gallery to the permanent collections. The artist's significant works dialogue with those of Auguste Rodin, inviting visitors to reflect on the two sculptors and their shared desire to use the body both as subject and as object and instrument of artistic exploration. p>


The central element of the exhibition is "Critical Mass II" (1995). This major installation is made up of sixty human-sized sculptures which take over the temporary exhibition room and the garden. In this masterful work, Gormley identifies twelve fundamental poses of the human body, which he cast five times, then arranged in different positions, creating sometimes contradictory and absurd effects. In the museum garden, "Critical Mass" extends in a line of twelve bodies heading towards "The Gates of Hell" by Rodin. In the exhibition room, we see a pile of bodies as if they had been thrown to the ground. Other bodies are leaning against the wall or hanging. The work highlights the materiality of the sculpture and that of the body, depending on variations in position, context and risk-taking.


In addition to "Critical Mass", six "Insiders" are located in the marble gallery, while four sculptures dialogue in the heart of the Hôtel Biron with the masterpieces of Rodin. This connection between the works of Rodin and Gormley questions the relationship between sculpture and the body. The exhibition also offers insight into Gormley's working methods, as well as his manner of collaborating with other artists, comparable to Rodin's studio approach, characterized by collective production. A series of studies by Gormley are displayed alongside models by Rodin, while a plaster mold finds its place alongside Balzac's Study of a Dressing Gown, highlighting the use of molds by both artists as a constant source of renewal.


More than two hundred notebooks are also on display, revealing 40 years of ideas, observations and drawings.


Date: From October 17, 2023 to March 3, 2024

Desires: P Rodin, Gormley, sculpture, human, mirroring

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