H. de Roos - The critique of the toronto exhibition |
|
|
4. THE PLASTERS WOULD BE TOO DAMAGED FOR PUBLIC EXHIBITION (1) Il s'agit là de plâtres de
fonderie usés, enduits d'agents de démoulage qui les amollissent encore
plus. [From the Musée Rodin press release] USED FOUNDRY PLASTERS AS ESSENTIAL ELEMENT OF THE TORONTO EXHIBITION This is a point also echoed by the press, and so we find these plasters variously called "abraded", "lacking detail", "worn off", "blunted", "used", "ruined", "spoiled", "discolored", "scratched", "dinged", "softened", "disfigured", "swollen", even "monstrous": In plaster cast after plaster cast, the forms are blunted and abraded, sometimes as if dipped in a coating which has congealed over their surfaces, leaving the shapes generalized -- which indeed may be the case, depending on what, precisely, the casts were made for. Some of them are scratched and dinged or badly softened. In many instances, they are coated with sepia or caramel-coloured amber staining, presumably the residue of the casting process. Like elegant courtesans surprised in their shopworn housecoats, a number of them have a morning-after feel, striking the viewer as awkwardly déshabillé. Nothing is learned by looking at these plasters about the nature of Rodin's gift; in fact, his gift has arguably been obscured. All one can see is the purported physical evidence of standard 19th-century foundry casting techniques, hardly the stuff that epiphanies are made of. (...) From: Rodin – Truly A Bust, by Sarah Milroy, Toronto Globe, 22 Sept. 2001 With every other artist and every other exhibition goal, this kind of critique would kill the show. Imagine an exhibition with a damaged Barnett Newman, Picasso, Malevich or Rembrandt painting (works of these four artists were wilfully damaged in Amsterdam since 1986). In the case of the R.O.M. exhibition, the problem is a bit more complex again. First of all, the MacLaren and R.O.M. have explicitly announced an exhibition educating the public on the casting process. Already the title "From Plaster to Bronze" indicates clearly enough that foundry plasters must make up the bulk of the show. If the exhibition concept is to have any validity at all, of course, these plaster must be used items, showing visible traces of the casting process - like the medium sized Thinker plaster displayed in the first room, stained with orange rust resin. To complain about such traces means to question the whole exhibition concept, that claims to "go behind the scenes":
|
|
|
Foundry plasters are the last artifacts in the process of making bronzes and often show evidence of their role in this muscular, earthy process in interesting ways. You can like them or hate them for that. The exhibition also includes studio plasters, bronzes
authorized by the Musée Rodin, and bronzes cast from these foundry
plasters in 2000 for educational purposes. Going behind the scenes like this, and employing
artifacts usually consigned to the warehouse, can threaten the status quo,
offend academic taste and lead to simple confusion. Obviously. |
|
|
|
|
