Why Rodin Is Dangerous Again

“Danger: Art Inside,” read the labels on the crated sculptures as I toured last month the almost-ready-for-public-viewing, but now restored, reinstalled, and reinterpreted Rodin Museum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The signs warned workers to take special care around pieces that couldn’t be moved during the renovation, but the same warning should be plastered across the façade (shown above) replicating that of Auguste Rodin’s Château d’Issy home in Meudon, just outside Paris. By restoring the look of the museum from its opening in 1929 and reimagining how to present Rodin’s art for the 21^st century, the team at the the Philadelphia Museum of Art, which has overseen the Rodin Museum since 1939, pays tribute to the vision of Rodin collector and champion Jules Mastbaum. Mastbaum’s, whose collection makes the Philadelphia site the second largest Rodin museum in the world, made made his fortune in the movie theaters, so there’s no doubt that he’d love this new summer blockbuster. Please come over to Picture This at Big Think to read more of "Why Rodin Is Dangerous Again." 

[Image: Rodin Museum, Meudon Gate and The Thinker, 2012. Photograph courtesy Philadelphia Museum of Art.]

[Many thanks to the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Rodin Museum for the image above, other press materials, and an invitation to the press preview of the grand reopening on July 13, 2012.]