Auguste Rodin

From spring 2024, the Museum of Fine Arts of Mons (BAM) hosts a major exhibition dedicated to the sculptor Auguste Rodin (French, 1840-1917).

The exhibition explores the narrative of Rodin's artistic career, of which Belgium, this fertile ground that allowed his art to flourish, is the centrepiece. The exhibition includes approximately 200 works, sculptures - some monumental works - drawings, engravings and paintings, covering Rodin's most iconic subjects and themes, with from many international loans, from the Musee Rodin in Paris, and private collections. Thanks to many discoveries and connections with Rodin's sources of inspiration (Michelangelo, Vesalius, Mabuse, Rubens), it reveals the sculptor's interest in artistic innovations from the renaissance that have been seldom taken into account. As such, readers are invited to rediscover the art of Jacques du Broeucq, the master of Gianbologna, as well as a selection of works from the collections of the BAM.

Finally, thanks to an exceptional collaboration with the Belgian artist Berlinde De Bruyckere, Rodin continues to be relevant, almost paradoxically, as a crucial milestone towards contemporary art.

The BAM's exhibition is curated by Antoinette Le Normand-Romain, Honorary Managing Director of the Institut National d'Histoire de l'Art (INHA) and Christina Buley-Uribe, Art Historian specialised in Rodin's graphic work.