Today Rodin would probably have his own website
The Kiss at Christchurch Mansion in Ipswich Picture: MEGAN ALDOUS - Credit: MEGAN ALDOUS
Ipswich has an artistic tradition that goes back hundreds of years, right through to the present day.
This plasterwork copy of Michelangelo's Taddel Tondo has been in Ipswich since Victorian times and has been recently restored. For many years it was used as a study piece for students at Ipswich Art School. It is on display in the Kiss and Tell exhibition at Christchurch Mansion, Ipswich which ends in April. - Credit: Archant
The connections of John Constable and Thomas Gainsborough to the town are well known, both in works and local patronage.
Since Victorian times art students at Ipswich Art School had the inspiration of live models, and the collections from round the world in the (new) natural history museum next door in High Street.
The Rodin study day at the University of Suffolk on Saturday, with a panel of experts and a working sculptor, was an eye-opener for many of us.
It traced the tradition of life drawing, painting and scupture through the generations to the present day.
Esquisite detail in a large plasterwork piece by Ellen Mary Rope, of Blaxhall, of children playing. Picture: DAVID VINCENT - Credit: Archant
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For me it was the talk by sculptor Laurence Edwards, full of excitement and enthusiasm for his art and work, which was the icing on the cake.
Over the summer I will be out looking for his works in `live’ in locations across Suffolk.
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Laurence, with his bronze casting foundry and team in Halesworth, is beginning to work on a grander scale.
He specialises in bronze male figures.
As part of a Rodin study day at the University of Suffolk we visited the Kiss and Tell exhibition, into human form, art and sculputre, at Christchurch Mansion. Rodin's masterpiece, The Kiss, close up Picture: DAVID VINCENT - Credit: Archant
Rodin, of course, had a liking for women and kept them around him in his studio for inspiration - to instantly capture a pose that caught his imagination.
He is known as an artistic legend and probably his best known individual piece is The Kiss. It is very impressive, close up and personal featuring tragic lovers Paolo and Francesca.
The name, the Kiss, came later - perhaps dreamt up by his PR agency?
It was art for art’s sake, and money too of course.
Who really wants to be starving artist?
He had been accused of cheating (making moulds from models’ bodies), but always denied it.
Yes, Rodin became a brand, and he re-used and re-purposed pieces, and his drawings, again and again.
He put on his own shows and sold direct to the public.
Today he would have his own website, I am sure, and probably a TV show - 60 Minute Sculpture?
There are only a few weeks left of Kiss & Tell at Christchurch Mansion. It was three years in the planning, and is well worth it.
Don’t miss this opportunity,
It is free entry, but donations are welcome to the next project here....
