HOUSEAGO | RODIN

9 Sep-18 Dec 2021

Overview

There is in Rodin a very pagan concern for the life-death continuum: clay as a manifestation of life and death. . . . It is a way of reminding us about the complexity of being in a body, of being alive.
—Thomas Houseago

We like to associate or confront Rodin’s works with the work of his own contemporaries, his own collection, and with the work of contemporary artists. . . . When we put two works that come from two different places together, they show us intimate truths.
—Amélie Simier, director of the Musée Rodin, Paris

Gagosian is pleased to present new sculptures by Thomas Houseago and posthumously cast bronze sculptures by Auguste Rodin, selected in collaboration with the Musée Rodin in Paris. This is the gallery’s second joint project with the museum, the first being Rodin - Sugimoto at Gagosian Paris in 2011. On the occasion of the exhibition, Rodin’s sculpture Monument à Whistler – Muse nue, bras coupés (Monument to Whistler – Nude Muse, without Arms, 1908) will be unveiled in Berkeley Square on September 7, 2021, and will remain on view until March 2022.

Houseago | Rodin juxtaposes two artists separated by more than a century who share a fascination with the human body’s physical and emotional dynamism. A suite of bronzes by Rodin is set in dialogue with Houseago’s sculptures cast in bronze, zinc, and brass. Rodin’s ability to suggest warmth, movement, and pathos in sculpture has long captivated Houseago, whose own rugged, visceral creations situate the historical medium within a distinctly contemporary view of the eternal human struggle. His Halved Walking Figure (2021) strides across the gallery, its looming headless form burnished to a golden patina, while the Rock Demons (2021–)—a new series of small sculptures that are tactile, talismanic, and archaic in appearance—possess a material heft that embodies the weight of psychological revelation.

Artists