The real thing?
Florida gallery owner questions the authenticity of upcoming Rodin exhibit
Mike Warkentin

Think there’s only one Thinker?

Sit down, put your hand on your chin and think again.

That’s what Florida artist and gallery owner Gary Arsenau is asking you to do before you visit the Winnipeg Art Gallery’s upcoming exhibition of works by French sculptor Auguste Rodin (1840-1917), part of the collection of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation.

Arsenau, who has been nicknamed the ‘Rodin Chaser’ in art circles, is adamant that some of the works that make up the Rodin: A Magnificent Obsession exhibit are somewhat less than ‘original.’

According to the website of the Cleveland Museum of Art, at least 25 Thinkers are scattered around the globe. One in Los Angeles is even numbered “11/12.” The gallery’s website also says less than 10 Thinkers were cast during Rodin’s lifetime.

Curious yet?

The proliferation of thoughtful metal men is all a complicated mess of wills and government decrees and copyright laws — but suffice it to say that sculpture isn’t like painting.

Da Vinci did one Mona Lisa, while Rodin made plasters with which foundries cast his work in bronze. They did so multiple times with the artist’s consent, even applying his signature to the items, and when Rodin died he willed his estate to the French government.

With the plasters in their possession, the French government and the Musée Rodin made additional casts that appeared — even ‘signed’ by Rodin — after his death. In 1957 the French government limited reproductions to 12 only.

Arsenau is adamant that works made after Rodin’s death are reproductions that should not be represented as original work. He also says the pieces are questionable because they aren’t made from Rodin’s original plasters, which are far too valuable to move to a foundry.

“The Museum Rodin acknowledges now on their website and has acknowledged to me in writing that they do not reproduce from the original plaster because they’re much more valuable...,” Arsenau says from his gallery in Florida.

“Every time you make a copy of a copy it becomes less distinct and rubbery,” he continues, “so even if you were to try and experience the nuances of his work through these reproductions in bronze you would lose it because it’s a copy of a copy.”

Arsenau also believes the right to apply Rodin’s signature to a piece died with the artist. In a 25-page document Arsenau presents two Rodin signatures — one from Jules Dalou and one from Damned Woman — that are clearly different.

“They just make (the signatures) up as they go along,” he says. “There may be some people who feel we have to mimic his signature as given to us or as we’ve seen in others, and then others just go, ‘Hey, just sign his name.’”

U of W art historian David Topper says reproductions are common in sculpture, and he likens the process to printmaking.

“The same thing happens with sculpture,” he says. “There were these casts and — even at the time when they’re made originally and the artist was alive — sometimes there’s several versions of the same (sculpture) made, so you just number these Thinkers and so forth. As long as Rodin said, ‘Yes that’s a good one,’ then it’s an original Rodin. After he’s dead and someone else used the cast it’s not original in that sense...”

Topper also believes the differences between ‘originals’ and ‘reproductions’ are negligible, though Arsenau contends that the nuances of the master’s hand are lost.

“It’s just for the so-called connoisseurs who worry about these things,” Topper says of the variations in the pieces. “It’s really not for the average viewer. You look at a Rodin whether it was made when he was alive or when he was dead and you really can’t see the difference.”

Winnipeg Art Gallery director Pierre Arpin declined to comment on specific points of Arsenau’s argument but says the exhibit is a stellar presentation of world-class sculpture.

“If these works of Rodin are good enough for the National Gallery of Art in Washington and the Metropolitan Museum in New York, they’re good enough for the Winnipeg Art Gallery,” he says.

He adds: “I’d like to ask the public to make up their own minds. Come and see the work and see whether they are in the presence of substantial and important works of art or not.”

That should give you something to think about when you’re taking a look at The Thinker this fall.