AUGUSTE RODIN
an expressionist eye
RODIN & DIX HECKEL KAUS KIRCHNER MUELLER NOLDE PECHSTEIN SCHMITT-ROTTLUFF
CONTENTS
PREFACE 7 PLATES 11
LIST OF WORKS 37
INSTALLATION VIEWS 45
RODIN THE ALMA PROJECT 77
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 79
PREFACE Dear guests, dear friends, I have lived in Berlin for close to a decade, having chosen this city as the birthplace of my children and that in which to open a gallery in 2011. Being here has exposed me to one of the most important artistic movements of the 20th Century – German Expressionism. It’s not an easy art to love; its subjects are often difficult and its images sometimes raw. But engaging with German Expressionism has enriched my life as a student of art history, and as a pilgrim who walks the path of art. German Expressionism has been magic for me; I have picked up its thread and woven it into the fabric of my gallery program. My background however, is not German. I identify most strongly with French culture, whose artistic tradition I was born into. Within this context, the work of Auguste Rodin has been for me a constant point of reference.
Naturally bringing together these two cultural streams -from the very first exhibition at Side by Side Gallery Akim Monet, I have shown works by Auguste Rodin in group shows, often in conversation with German Expressionism. So, as I embark on Rodin the Alma Project, where I seek to plot the points of convergence between Rodin, his contemporaries and followers, I find it very meaningful, incontrovertible in fact, that there is evidence that the Expressionists were indeed inspired by Auguste Rodin, upon visiting his numerous solo and group exhibitions held all over Europe at the dawn of the 20th Century. To have my own personal journey confirmed by the reality of Rodin’s pollination of German Expressionism is deeply satisfying to me. And to be able to offer a glimpse into that passage by juxtaposing ten striking bronzes by Rodin with works by eight of the most important exponents of German Expressionism – all in my own gallery, here in Berlin – is quite humbling. Rainer Maria Rilke, the great German poet, found in Rodin’s sculptures a visual language for the search for meaning in a chaotic modern world. Although he spoke of Rodin, he in fact described Expressionism, German or otherwise:
“At the end of the Renaissance there was the flowering of a great plastic art; at that time when life renewed itself, when there was a revelation of the secret of faces, and a great vital movement was in the state of growth. And now? Had not a time come again that was urging toward this expression—this strong and impressive exposition of what was unexpressed, confused, unrevealed? The arts somehow had renewed themselves; zeal and expectation filled and animated them. But perhaps this art, the plastic art that still hesitated in the fear of a great past, was to be called upon to find that which the others sought gropingly and longingly. This art was to help a time whose misfortune was that all its conflicts lay in the invisible.” Auguste Rodin by Rainer Maria Rilke Translated by Jessie Lamont and Hans Trausil, 1919
Welcome to AUGUSTE RODIN: an expressionist eye!
Akim Monet April 27, 2015 Berlin
PLATES
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“Rodin’s motive in modeling this head, the head of an ageing, ugly man, whose broken nose even helped to emphasize the tortured expression of the face, must have been the fullness of life that was cumulated in these features. There were no symmetrical planes in this face at all, nothing repeated itself, no spot remained empty, dumb or indifferent. This face had not been touched by life, it had been permeated through and through with it as though an inexorable hand had thrust it into fate and held it there as in the whirlpool of a washing, gnawing torrent.” Auguste Rodin by Rainer Maria Rilke Translated by Jessie Lamont and Hans Trausil, 1919
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LIST OF WORKS
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Ernst Ludwig KIRCHNER (1880-1938) HEAD OF DORIS 1907 Colored lithograph 26 x 21 cm Best.-Kat.-Nr. 134 Buchheim Museum der Phantasie Bernried am Starnberger See
Ernst Ludwig KIRCHNER (1880-1938) SITTING NUDE GIRL 1907 Etching 22,9 x 17,9 cm Best.-Kat.-Nr. 136 Buchheim Museum der Phantasie Bernried am Starnberger See
Emil NOLDE (1867-1956) PROPHET 1912 Woodcut 32,4 x 22 cm Best.-Kat.-Nr. 291 Buchheim Museum der Phantasie Bernried am Starnberger See © Nolde Stiftung Seebüll
Auguste RODIN (1840-1917) GIGANTI, TÊTE 1885 Bronze 9 x 8 x 8,3 cm Fonte Susse Ed. III/IV, © by Musée Rodin 1984
Emil NOLDE (1867-1956) DR. L.(EBER) 1912 Woodcut 29,5 x 19,7 cm Best.-Kat.-Nr. 290 Buchheim Museum der Phantasie Bernried am Starnberger See © Nolde Stiftung Seebüll
Auguste RODIN (1840-1917) BALZAC, TÊTE, ÉTUDE D’APRÈS BERTHALL Ca. 1894 Bronze 25,4 x 26 x 25 cm Fonte Godard Ed. IV/IV, © by Musée Rodin 1999
Max PECHSTEIN (1881-1955) THE WOUNDED 1917 Woodcut 39,8 x 29,7 cm Inv.-Nr. 1.00484 Buchheim Museum der Phantasie Bernried am Starnberger See ©Pechstein, Hamburg/Tökendorf
Auguste RODIN (1840-1917) L’OMBRE, TÊTE, petit modèle 1902-1904 Bronze 37,6 x 28,4 x 32,5 cm Fonte Godard Ed. 5/8, © by Musée Rodin 1988
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Max PECHSTEIN (1881-1955) HEAD OF A FISHERMAN 1922 Woodcut 40,1 x 29,7 cm Best.-Kat.-Nr. 344 Buchheim Museum der Phantasie Bernried am Starnberger See ©Pechstein, Hamburg/Tökendorf
Auguste RODIN (1840-1917) HOMME AU NEZ CASSÉ Conceived 1863-64 Bronze with a rich green and brown patination 27 cm Signed A. Rodin and Georges Rudier Fondeur Paris Ed.12, © by Musée Rodin 1967
Erich HECKEL (1883-1970) PORTRAIT OF A MAN 1919 Colored woodcut 46,2 x 32,6 cm Best.-Kat.-Nr. 110 Buchheim Museum der Phantasie Bernried am Starnberger See © Nachlass Erich Heckel, Hemmenhofen
Auguste RODIN (1840-1917) EUSTACHE DE SAINT PIERRE, ÉTUDE DE NU Date unknown Bronze 98 x 34 x 36,5 cm Fonte Georges Rudier Ed. 5/12, © by Musée Rodin 1965
Karl SCHMITT-ROTTLUFF (1884-1976) SITTING NUDE 1909 Woodcut 39 x 25 cm Best.-Kat.-Nr. 357 Buchheim Museum der Phantasie Bernried am Starnberger See ©VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2015
Auguste RODIN (1840-1917) FEMME QUI SE PEIGNE Before 1900 Bronze 24 x 14,5 x 13,7 cm Fonte Godard Ed. 3/8, © by Musée Rodin 2002
Otto DIX (1891-1969) RECLINING NUDE (SITTING WITH CIGARETTE) 1923 Lithograph 56x43,5 cm Best.-Kat.-Nr. 538 Buchheim Museum der Phantasie Bernried am Starnberger See ©VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2015
Auguste RODIN (1840-1917) SPHINGE SUR COLONNE 1900 Bronze 93,4 x 16 x 22,3 cm Fonte Godard Ed. III/IV, © by Musée Rodin 1996
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Max PECHSTEIN (1881-1955) THE SLEEPER 1908 Lithograph 43,5 x 32,5 cm Best.-Kat.-Nr. 302 Buchheim Museum der Phantasie Bernried am Starnberger See ©Pechstein, Hamburg/Tökendorf
Auguste RODIN (1840-1917) NU FÉMININ AGENOUILLÉ, PENCHÉ VERS L’AVANT Ca. 1887 Bronze 16,5 x 11,3 x 19,5 cm Fonte Godard Ed. 8/8, © by Musée Rodin 2004
Otto MUELLER (1874-1930) ADAM AND EVE 1920/22 Lithograph 17,2 x 13,3 cm Inv.-Nr. 1.00314 Buchheim Museum der Phantasie Bernried am Starnberger See
Auguste RODIN (1840-1917) FEMME ACCROUPIE ET MARTYRE Ca. 1889-1890 Bronze 65 x 40 x 35,5 cm Fonte Godard Ed. 2/8, © by Musée Rodin 1998
Ernst Ludwig KIRCHNER (1880-1938) TORSO OF A STRETCHING GIRL 1907 Wood cut 37,7 x 25,5 cm Best.-Kat.-Nr. 132 Buchheim Museum der Phantasie Bernried am Starnberger See
Max KAUS (1891-1977) SITTING BOY WITH CROSSED ARMS 1920 Lithograph, colored on stone 48,7 x 38 cm Best.-Kat.-Nr. 634 Buchheim Museum der Phantasie Bernried am Starnberger See ©VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2015
Auguste RODIN (1840-1917) MUSE TRAGIQUE, TÊTE 1895 Bronze 31 x 19 x 22 cm Fonte Godard Ed. 8/8, © by Musée Rodin 1987 43
INSTALLATION VIEWS
The name Rodin the Alma Project derives from an exhibition held in 1900 by Auguste Rodin (1840-1917), in which the master presented a retrospective of his sculpture and introduced his previously unseen works on paper. This exhibition, a turning point in Rodin’s career, took place at the Pavilion de l’Alma, a mostly glass structure which Rodin designed and built for the Paris Exposition Universelle of 1900. The works on display at the Pavilion de l’Alma greatly contributed to Rodin’s international reputation as the father of modern sculpture. The mission of Rodin the Alma Project is to illustrate the art historical connection between Rodin and the main proponents of Modernism, and to foster a relationship with creators of contemporary art. Through exhibitions and symposia at our Berlin gallery and at galleries and museums around the world, we will draw lines between Rodin and those artists who have benefited from his legacy, and those who will indeed further it. Since 2011, Side by Side Gallery Akim Monet has promoted themed conversations among artists from different periods. In this
RODIN THE ALMA PROJECT current exhibition, we give the floor to Rodin and the German Expressionists. Germany, the birthplace of Expressionism, and Berlin in particular, from whence came several of its most renowned proponents, is a most appropriate place to host this colloquy. The works by Rodin exhibited in Germany and Austria in the early 1900’s created a sensation and greatly contributed to the major change in direction of northern European art and literature. As Rodin’s fame grew, he attracted many followers, including – to name but two - Gustav Klimt, whom Rodin met in Vienna in 1902, and Rainer Maria Rilke. Rodin’s influence was far-reaching and even touched Edvard Munch, who painted his “Thinker,” Henri Matisse, whose “Serf” was inspired by Rodin’s “Walking Man,” Constantin Brancusi, and in the literary realm Octave Mirbeau and Oscar Wilde, among many others. We hope you enjoy Auguste Rodin: An Expressionist Eye, a journey back to the turn of the 20th Century, from whence Side by Side Gallery Akim Monet, Berlin has chosen to begin the cycle of exhibitions under the heading of Rodin the Alma Project .
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS About the Musée Rodin The Musée Rodin contains the largest collection of the sculptor’s works at two sites, in Paris, at the Hôtel Biron, and in Meudon, site of his former home, atelier, and reserve collection. Created in 1916, thanks to Auguste Rodin’s donation of his works and his collections to the French State, it opened in 1919. About the Buchheim Museum The Buchheim Museum brings together four collections under one roof: Expressionist paintings, watercolors, drawings and prints; Ethnology and Folklore; Arts and Crafts from around the world; and works by the artist Lothar-Günther Buchheim. Changing exhibitions complement the vitality of the museum.
About Rodin the Alma Project Rodin the Alma Project is a public – private partnership between the Musée Rodin, Paris, and Side by Side Gallery Akim Monet, Berlin. Its mission is to illustrate the art historical connection between Rodin and the main proponents of Modernism, and to foster a relationship with creators of contemporary art through exhibitions and symposia at Side by Side Gallery Akim Monet, Berlin and at galleries and museums around the world. About Side By Side Gallery Akim Monet Side by Side Gallery Akim Monet GmbH opened in the Fall of 2011 in Berlin. The gallery holds three exhibitions a year curated by Akim Monet, focusing on themes that juxtapose artists from different periods in order to explore and re-contextualize works of art. By revealing thematic correlations, Side by Side Gallery Akim Monet moves beyond a singular chronological presentation to reveal converging currents and lasting influences.
We would like to express our heartfelt gratitude for their unfailing support to Madame Catherine Chevillot, director of the Musée Rodin, Paris; to Daniel Schreiber, director of the Buccheim Museum der Phantasie, Bernried; and lastly but not least, to Mr. Jérôme Le Blay of the Comité Rodin.
BUCHHEIM
MUSEUM THE ALMA PROJECT
akim monet SIDE BY SIDE GALLERY
CATALOGUE DESIGN Anne-Marie Visconti Claudio Fortugno Akim Monet 2015 Š Side by Side Gallery Akim Monet GmbH
Side by Side Gallery Akim Monet GmbH Potsdamer Strasse 81b - 10785 Berlin - Germany T. +49-30-25 46 09 44 www.sidebysidegallery.com