Currently closed due to renovation work. Re-opening on June 6, 2024, 7 pm.
October 18, 2024, to February 23, 2025
Medardo Rosso
Inventing Modern Sculpture
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.
Curated by Heike Eipeldauer
Exhibition design: Florian Pumhösl and Walter Kräutler
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Medardo Rosso in his studio in Boulevard des Batignolles, 1890
modern print from original glass negative
cm 13 × 17,7
© Archivio Medardo Rosso
Medardo Rosso in his studio in Boulevard des Batignolles, 1890
modern print from original glass negative
cm 13 × 17,7
© Archivio Medardo Rosso
Medardo Rosso
Ecce Puer in his studio in Boulevard des Batignolles, 1906
modern print from original glass negative
17,9 x 13 cm
© Archivio Medardo Rosso
Medardo Rosso
Ecce Puer in his studio in Boulevard des Batignolles, 1906
modern print from original glass negative
17,9 x 13 cm
© Archivio Medardo Rosso
Medardo Rosso
Ecce Puer, 1920 (1906)
Wax over plaster
47 x 34 x 32 cm
Collection Peter Freeman, Inc. New York/Paris and Amedeo Porro Fine Arts Lugano/London
Photo: Marilena Anzani
Medardo Rosso
Ecce Puer, 1920 (1906)
Wax over plaster
47 x 34 x 32 cm
Collection Peter Freeman, Inc. New York/Paris and Amedeo Porro Fine Arts Lugano/London
Photo: Marilena Anzani
Medardo Rosso
Bambino malato, 1895
plaster
17,5 x 20 x 19,3 cm
© Museo Medardo Rosso, Barzio
Photo: Archivio Medardo Rosso
Medardo Rosso
Bambino malato, 1895
plaster
17,5 x 20 x 19,3 cm
© Museo Medardo Rosso, Barzio
Photo: Archivio Medardo Rosso
Medardo Rosso
La Portinaia, 1883–84
Wax over plaster
Courtesy Sammlung PCC
Medardo Rosso
La Portinaia, 1883–84
Wax over plaster
Courtesy Sammlung PCC