As the 20th century dawned, Rodin reigned supreme in the world of sculpture. In France and elsewhere, new generations were seeking to free themselves from his influence.

Wilhelm Lehmbruck, Grosse Sinnende, 1913. Karlsruhe © photo Jürgen Diemer


In the early 1900s in Paris, artists from all over Europe were coming together. All had the same precoccupations: an avid search for a new style of form, in a world where Rodin is the undisputed master of sculpture. Over a ten year period the capital is a crucible where ideas are exchanged and melded together. Archipenko, Brancusi, Gargallo, Gaudier-Brzeska, González, Hoetger, Lehmbruck, Minne, Nadelman, Zadkine… each with their own personality, multiply their experimentations whilst defying conventional categories. “Today, we have crystallised the sphere into a cube, we have combined masses of all possible forms, concentrating them in order to express our abstract idea of a superior consciousness.” (Gaudier-Brzeska).

photo : D.R.

The horrors of the war, the break-up of the Parisian scene when some sculptors went off to the front, or others went back to their native countries, and the death of Rodin in 1917 marked a total change and the beginning of a new aesthetic.

This exhibition, featuring creative artists from all over Europe, will show how experiments into anti-Rodin volumes were appearing in the work of classical artists — Maillol, Bernard, Lehmbruck — as well as in the work of avant-garde sculptors — Duchamp-Villon, Archipenko, Brancusi. Rejecting excesses of expression, a whole generation was obsessed with seeking out a feeling for form and line, as these new and original confrontations reveal.

Here’s all the essential information for the exhibition Leaving Rodin Behind at the Musée d’Orsay

When: 10th March – 31st May 2009
Where: Musée d’Orsay, 1, rue de la Légion d’Honneur, 75005 Paris. Métro Solferino (line 12) or RER C station Musée d’Orsay, or bus n°s 24, 63, 68, 69, 73, 83, 84, 94 (map ici)
Opening hours: Open every day except Monday from 9.30am to 6pm (9.45pm Thursdays). Closed 1st May
Admission: 8 euros (includes permanent collection). Concessions: 5.50 euros.
Official museum site: Musée d’Orsay
More info about the exhibition: here.

Bigger map here