Past Exhibition


Rodin's Obsession: The Gates of Hell
Selections from the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Collection
April 12 - June 17, 2001

At the height of his career, Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) was regarded as the greatest sculptor since Michelangelo. In 1880 he received a commission from the French Government to create a decorative portal based on Dante's Divine Comedy. For the next thirty-seven years The Gates of Hell would be Rodin's obsession. The Gates were unfinished at the time of Rodin's death; his final design unresolved. However the elemental figures he left, The Thinker, The Kiss, and the Three Shades stand alone as a tribute to his genius and ability to communicate the vitality of the human spirit. This exhibition features thirty-one bronze sculptures related to Rodin's monumental undertaking.

This exhibition is supported in-part by the generosity of the following:

Carol Weiner Sandfield
Mr. & Mrs. Newt Reynolds
Wolf Koehler
Thomas M. Bayer

This exhibition was organized and made possible by the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation.