Rodin in the United States:
Confronting the Modern

Auguste Rodin (French, 1840–1917) is one of the most celebrated sculptors of the modern age, represented in museums and private collections across the globe. However, this was not always the case.

From his first sculpture to enter an American museum in 1893 and culminating with his popular revival in the 1980s, this exhibition follows Rodin’s rise to eminence in the United States due in large part to the collectors, critics, and curators who helped make it happen.

The more than seventy sculptures and drawings in the exhibition include many of Rodin’s best-known compositions, The Thinker, Monument to Balzac, and The Kiss, as well as less-familiar subjects and an exceptional number of his expressive and probing drawings. The exhibition shows Rodin working across an array of media—from terracotta and plaster to bronze and marble—and illuminates his creative process, from studies and maquettes to completed works. Rodin in the United States also reveals Rodin’s incredible daring and inventiveness as he continually pushed against and beyond traditional notions of sculpture.

This exhibition is organized by the Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts.