A Spring Gala Like No Other: From Paris to the Plains Art Museum

World-renowned sculptor Auguste Rodin was born in Paris in 1840. According to Rodin scholar Catherine Lampert, the child Rodin was very close to all of his siblings, especially his sister Maria who supported his love and practice of art. He was so emotionally attached to her, in fact, that when she died in early adulthood the devastated Rodin entered the Order of the Fathers of the Holy Sacrament. There, Father Pierre-Julien Eymard, instead of encouraging the grieving brother to study for the priesthood, suggested that Rodin—who already had years of art study to his credit—devote himself wholly to his art.

Though Rodin abandoned the idea of becoming a priest, he seems to pastor humanity by connecting viewers to the primacy and struggle of the human spirit—in its infancy, in Platonic and erotic love, in maturity, in individual pursuits, in collective social and political endeavors, and in essential human communion. A shepherding toward empathy for suffering humanity is also at the core of Rodin’s aesthetic. He infuses the human form with a complex of intense emotions—so lifelike in presentation that any perceiving spirit can recognize itself, sometimes in the particular aspects of powerful facial expressions, at other times in the nearly universal feeling portrayed in works like “The Call to Arms” or “Head of Sorrow.”

The Plains exhibition, “Rodin: A Magnificent Obsession,” comes from the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation, the largest private collection of Rodin’s work in the world. The amazing breadth of the collection situated in two Plains Art Museum galleries stuns as the powerfully conceived and executed small-to-grand scale works invite, confront, amaze, and envelop the viewing eye and viewer’s consciousness. Bronze casts of familiar and famous works like “The Thinker” and “The Kiss” from “The Gates of Hell” exist alongside dramatic works such as “The Burghers of Calais.”

“Astonishing” doesn’t begin to describe the collective ethos the magnificent sculptures create as they amass to form a memorable visual human drama.

With curatorial and educational aplomb, the superb “Rodin: A Magnificent Obsession” supplementary programs offer insight into the fascinating and sometimes tumultuous personal life of the artist, including his love affair with the artist Camille Claudel and his marriage at age 77 to his lifelong companion Rose Beuret. In addition, Rodin’s technical achievements—along with the social context of his era—are underscored.

You are invited to explore the legacy of Auguste Rodin—one of the greatest sculptors since Michelangelo—in world-class Plains Art Museum style. Experience the Fargo Moorhead Ballet dancing Rodin; Taste fine wine from Happy Harry’s; Indulge in culinary masterpieces at Cafe Muse by Green Market Catering; Dance to Post-Traumatic Funk Syndrome; Dare to imbibe a Dante’s Inferno Fizz at the Gates of Hell Lounge by the HoDo.
The 2008 Spring Gala Silent Art Auction features over ninety works by artists such as Walter Piehl, Jr., Richard Szeitz, Ellen Diederich, and Michael D. Dunn, plus many others. Preview all works, with minimum bids from $50.00 to $950.00, after April 28th at the museum. Add to your existing collection or begin a personal art collection with one or more of these masterful works. Tickets are $90.00 and are available online at plainsart.org or by phone at (701) 232-3821.

If You Go

WHAT: 2008 Plains Art Museum Spring Gala
WHERE: 704 1st Ave. N., Fargo
WHEN: Saturday, May 3rd, 7 to Midnight
INFO: (701) 232-3821