“ I showed her where she would find gold, but the gold she finds is her very own.” Auguste Rodin

The Rodin Museum devote a major retrospective of Camille Claudel’s work. This exhibition will consist of her most important works, with over 80 sculptures in marble, terracotta, plaster, onyx and bronze, as well as about ten engravings and drawings from public and private collections. Certain documents, including correspondence between Rodin and Camille Claudel as well as photographs of that period, will also be on display.

A retrospective to finally view Camille Claudel’s sculptures independently of Rodin

This retrospective sheds new light on the artistic career, punctuated by masterpieces, of an artist who is at present known more for her private life than her own creations. After having been judged for a long time in reference to Rodin, the art of Camille Claudel is now considered to be profoundly original, intense and radiant in its own right. The goal of this exhibition is to examine the work of this free-spirited artist outside the context of her love affair with Rodin.
The time has therefore arrived to study the work of Camille Claudel and her place in the artistic movement of the late 19th century. Did Camille Claudel succeed in creating a decidedly modern sculpture, on the fringe of the work of Rodin? How did she develop as a woman, student and sculptress in the studio? What kind of strategy could a sculptress pursue at the
end of the 19th century? These are the kind of questions that the exhibition will seek to answer.

The oeuvre of Camille Claudel is considered to bear the mark of Rodin’s influence. It is true that the master exerted a great influence on his student. But the opposite is also true, to such an extent that it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between the work achieved by each of these two artists. However, the sculptures of Camille Claudel also express an incredibly creative power.
This exhibition is an opportunity to discover, or rediscover, the works that shaped the fame of the sculptress: The Waltz, a couple of graceful dancers seemingly carried away by a whirlwind; Maturity, an autobiographic work symbolising the end of her affair with Rodin: The Wave or The Gossips, typical examples of sculptures in which Camille Claudel breaks away from the master to create more personal works, strongly influenced by the decorative arts and by Japonism.
A number of works will be presented to the public for the first time, for instance the plaster of The Wounded Niobid, deposited by the French State at the Bejaia Museum in Algeria in 1935, and small terracotta studies from museum collections recently reattributed to Camille Claudel.

Camille Claudel, an artist loved by the general public

Before being presented at the Rodin Museum in Paris, the exhibition will be shown in Madrid from November 2007 to February 2008, thanks to the support of the Mafre Foundation.
Website: www.musee-rodin.fr
Admission price 7 €, Youngers et Pro rates 5 €, Family rate 10 €
Combined exhibition + permanent collections tickets + park 10 €, Youngers et Pro rates 7 €, Family rate 10 €
Rodin Museum, 79 rue de Varenne, 75007 Paris. M° Varenne. Closed on Mondays. Open from 9.30 a.m. to 5.45 p.m.

Information selected by FrenchVision.com and provided by Rodin Museum.

Drawings/Boundary/Drawings - Anselm Kiefer at the Louvre

A series of drawings is presented on the occasion of the inauguration of a new permanent installation at the museum (monumental painting) by Anselm Kiefer. 

In the Salle d’Actualité of the Department of Graphic Arts, between the art of yesterday and the art of today, a boundary is drawn. On one side the collections of the Louvre and on the other Anselm Kiefer, engaging in dialogue with these works, filtered through his particular perspective. Thus a passage is formed.
The theme of boundaries has long held interest for Anselm Kiefer, as an artist born in West Germany at the end of the Second World War, who like others of his generation has explored questions of remembrance and identity, given new impetus by reunification. The confrontation with collective memory is central to his work. Kiefer draws inspiration from a variety of sources that have been widely documented and acknowledged by the artist: contemporary history, the traumatic experience of the Holocaust, Germany confronting its past, Jewish culture and traditions (especially cabalistic writings), ancient Egyptian and Sumerian myth, the great epic poems. Literary references also permeate his work: most visibly Paul Celan and Ingeborg Bachmann, but also the Russian poet Velimir Khlebnikov as well as Charles Baudelaire and other great French writers.
To celebrate this inauguration, a month-long program of cultural events has been planned in close collaboration with Kiefer: a symposium, a conference series, a special evening of readings, as well as dance and music performances, will explore the crossing of boundaries. “The Louvre invites Anselm Kiefer” will enable museum visitors to experience world premieres (in music and dance) created especially for the Louvre and in honor of this event. Temporary exhibition Salle d’Actualité, Department of Graphic Arts, room 33

Information selected by FrenchVision.com and provided by Louvre Museum.