Description:
August Rodin (1840-1917) completely revitalized the very language of sculpture with his passion for the creative act. The ongoing interplay of accident and chance in his fragile plasters, bronzes, marble figures, drawings, watercolors, and photographs speak to an endless flow of creation. Rodin's "studio," however, must be understood as the small artistic community that worked for and around the master. It consisted of practitioners of specific trades to whom we owe the transformation of one material to another, one dimension to another, under Rodin's attentive guidance. This book, which accompanies a major traveling exhibition, sheds light on the sculptor's process and takes stock of his prodigious creativity. It also features masterpieces like the 200 or so figures fleeing in The Gates of Hell, a work Rodin would draw from for the rest of his career, and The Walking Man.