Twelve exhibits consisting of thirteen major works from Croatian master sculptor Ivan Meštrović, will be displayed from 18 September 2012 to 6 January 2013 at Paris’ Musée Rodin, home to thousands of works by one of the most influential and respected artists in history, Auguste Rodin.
In the frame Croatie, la voici, a Croatian festival in France, the Ivan Meštrović, L’Expression croate (Ivan Meštrović, Croatian Expression) exhibition opened on 17 September at Paris Musée Rodin. The works on exhibit can be viewed through to 6 January 2013.
The concept of the exhibition was authored by Catherine Chevillot, director of the Musée Rodin in Paris; documentarian Véronique Matiussi of the Musée Rodin in Paris; Andro Krstulović Opara, director of the Ivan Meštrović Museum in Split and by Ljiljana Čerina, a museum advisor with the Ivan Meštrović Museum – Meštrović Atelier.
The Ivan Meštrović, L’Expression croate (Ivan Meštrović, Croatian Expression) exhibition at the Musée Rodin is an opportunity to shed new light on the dialogue between two internationally acclaimed artists through a selection of Meštrović’s works in a space already housing the works of his great teacher. The works are there on loan from the Meštrović Atelier and the HAZU Glyptotheque in Zagreb, the Meštrović Gallery and the baptismal font of the cathedral in Split.
Twelve exhibits consisting of thirteen major works from Croatian master sculptor Ivan Meštrović, will be displayed from 18 September 2012 to 6 January 2013 at Paris’ Musée Rodin, home to thousands of works by one of the most influential and respected artists in history, Auguste Rodin.
The selection of works by Musée Rodin director Catherine Chevillot and Ivan Meštrović Museum director Andro Krstulović Opara forms a cross-section of Meštrović’s creative work—from the earliest Viennese Secession-Symbolism phase, his Expressionism stylistic inclinations, the female acts of the Zagreb period, sacral themes, to the mature, America phase.
Paris viewers will have an opportunity to see his masterpiece Zdenac života (The Well of Life) created in Vienna in 1905, Timor dei (Vienna, 1905) and Laokoon mojih dana (Laokoon Of My Age, Vienna, 1905). For this showing only, after 1908, when Meštrović exhibited the work Antejeva desnica (Right Hand of Antaeus, Paris, 1908) at the First Dalmatian Exhibition in Split, a reconstruction has been made and the two component parts are exhibited as a compositional whole.
Meštrović’s view of Auguste Rodin is seen in a Rodin portrait from the time of their meeting in Rome in 1914, while Meštrović’s dialogue with Rodin in the work Glas inspiracije (Voice of Inspiration) is present in the selection of works Studija za Psihu (Study for Psyche, Zagreb, 1927). The calm and contemplative expression of Meštrović’s exceptional Vestals (Cannes, 1917) and Dalekih akorda (Distant Chords, Rim, 1918) stand in contrast to the dense expressivity of the works Žena u grču (Woman In Agony, Zagreb, 1928), Perzefona (Persephone, Rome, 1946) and Job (Rim, 1946). This selection of works endeavours to depict a cross-section of the artistic creativity of Ivan Meštrović while respecting the thematic determinants of the various phases of his exceptionally rich oeuvre.
This meeting of two greats, bound by a great mutual sense of respect, resulted in a correspondence that will, along with Meštrović’s essay on Rodin on the occasion of his passing and other texts, be published in a bilingual French-English catalogue.
Find the catalogue at www.culturenet.hr