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Auguste Rodin

June 13, 2005

Dear Dilek,

Artists of all stripes can learn something from Auguste Rodin.
As in the work of Michelangelo, to whom he was indebted,
Rodin's sculptural material is often cut away only to the
degree that it's creatively needed. This unfinished and rough
aspect is a virtue--the hand of the artisan allows viewer
participation in the art process. Also, simplifying shapes and
means of expression increases an artist's opportunity for
direct emotional impact.

It's this "in one" contrast that makes figures like "The
Thinker" so viable. The athletic physique is transfixed by the
intense capability of the inner man. It's a brilliant example
of body language. In another exemplary piece, "The Kiss," the
female figure is submissive and yet delicately responsive. The
male, in contrast, is powerful yet gentle, his fingertips
resting tentatively on her thigh.

Rodin used caricature and exaggeration to emphasize and bring
life to his ideas. Brutality is depicted with outsize hands,
veins, stressed musculature, distressed sinews. Age is shown
with the weary slump of the material--sag, bloat and
disfigurement. Youth with simplicity and innocence of finish.
Love with palpable eagerness made more so by the absence of
distracting detail.

In the tragic "Burghers of Calais" a state of confusion is
implied by the irregular arrangement of the figures. These are
people in an extreme emotional crisis, their faces perplexed by
immanent doom. Rodin's is an intense personal expression of
elemental power--even the hasty modeling of the clothing seems
to show anguish and stress. Through all this an observant
student should note the very height of the action and the most
telling gestures. It's as if the sculptor took multiple photos
of acting models and selected one as the quintessential. In
order to get an idea of what I'm talking about, I've asked
Andrew to illustrate these ideas at the top of the current
clickback. See URL below.

Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) rose from disadvantaged circumstances
and spent his first years designing tiles and masonry. In later
life his sculpture and drawings were in high demand. Much has
been made of the early rejection of his work by the French
Academy and his liaison with Camille Claudel, and others.
Whatever one might think of his life, Rodin was a master. "Work
lovingly done," he said, "is the secret of all order and all
happiness."

Best regards,

Robert

PS: "The Third Republic consumed art like nobody's business.
There was a perceived need for public iconic imagery to
celebrate the secular spirit of the new bourgeois order in a
style running on the fumes of Romanticism." (David Duke)

Esoterica: Rodin indeed engaged a professional photographer,
Gaudenzio Marconi. As well as photographing finished work,
Marconi took multiple shots of models for Rodin to use at his
leisure. Most notable is the attention to light and shadow,
both soft and hard. Rotated sculpture, like rotated life, when
lit consistently, picks up a moving montage of ever-changing
patterns. Rodin was highly conscious of the "circumambulation
factor." Sculpture, unlike "wall art," was meant to be circled.

Current clickback: If you would like to see selected,
illustrated responses to the last letter, "Turning pro," as
well as examples and commentary on Rodin's work, please go to:
http://www.painterskeys.com/clickbacks/professional-artist.asp

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