Medardo Rosso

Artist and artisan, art theorist and proto-installation artist, master of high-publicity productions and rival of Auguste Rodin, Medardo Rosso (b. 1858 in Turin, d. 1928 in Milan) was one of the great pioneers of modernism and a figure as extraordinary as he was eccentric.

mumok is dedicating a comprehensive retrospective to the Italian-French artist’s still little-known oeuvre, which will feature about fifty sculptures and a large selection of photographs, photocollages, and drawings. The show thus also ties in with the museum’s earliest collection holdings.
 

The exhibition delves into a thorough analysis of Rosso’s processual and repetitive approach, with which the artist defied all conventions of traditional sculpture. A concise selection of works by artists directly or indirectly influenced by Rosso—such as Jean-Siméon Chardin, Edgar Degas, Constantin Brâncuși, Louise Bourgeois, Jasper Johns, Robert Morris, Lynda Benglis, Eva Hesse, Marisa Merz, and Phyllida Barlow—further unpack and create a dialogue with Rosso’s equally groundbreaking and hermetic work. The show thus adheres to Rosso’s own artistic practice of never exhibiting alone but always in “conversation” with others.

 

The exhibition, which is being organized in close collaboration with the Medardo Rosso Estate, will subsequently travel to Kunstmuseum Basel, where it will be on view from March to August 2025.

Exhibition design: Florian Pumhösl and Walter Kräutler