Medardo Rosso

Exhibition |

October 18, 2024 to February 23, 2025

Medardo Rosso
Inventing Modern Sculpture

Curated by Heike Eipeldauer

Artist and artisan, art theorist and proto-installation artist, master of high-publicity performances and rival of Auguste Rodin, Medardo Rosso (b. 1858 in Turin, d. 1928 in Milan) was one of the great pioneers of modernism. 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 exhibition delves into a thorough analysis of Rosso's processual and repetitive and radical anti-heroic approach, with which the artist deﬁed all conventions of traditional sculpture. A selection of works by artists directly or indirectly inﬂuenced by Rosso — such as Francis Bacon, Nairy Baghramian, Phyllida Barlow, Lynda Benglis, Louise Bourgeois, Constantin Brâncuși, Edgar Degas, Alberto Giacometti, David Hammons, Eva Hesse, Marisa Merz, Robert Morris and Andy Warhol — further unpack and create a dialogue with Rosso’s equally groundbreaking and hermetic work. The “expanded” retrospective thus adheres to Rosso’s own artistic practice of not exhibiting alone but 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

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Medardo Rosso, Ecce Puer, post 1920 (ca. 1906)
Detail, Courtesy: Federico Fabbri, London, Photo: Galleria Russo, Rome

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Exhibition View
Medardo Rosso. Inventing Modern Sculpture
Photo: Markus Wörgötter

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Exhibition View
Medardo Rosso. Inventing Modern Sculpture
Photo: Markus Wörgötter

[Translate to English:] Ausstellungsansicht Medardo Rosso. Die Erfindung der modernen Skulptur

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Exhibition View
Medardo Rosso. Inventing Modern Sculpture
Photo: Markus Wörgötter

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Exhibition View
Medardo Rosso. Inventing Modern Sculpture
Photo: Markus Wörgötter

Black and white photograph of the artist Medardo Rosso in his studio surrounded by his works, 1906

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Medardo Rosso in his studio in Boulevard des Batignolles, 1890
© Archivio Medardo Rosso

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Medardo Rosso
Aetas aurea, (Detail), 1886
Photo: mumok / Markus Wörgötter
Courtesy of Amedeo Porro Fine Arts Lugano/London

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Edgar Degas
Little dancer aged fourteen, 1880–81 (cast made c. 1922)
Sainsbury Centre, UEA, UK
Photo: Pete Huggins

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Andy Warhol
Optical Car Crash, 1962
Siebdruckfarbe auf Leinwand
208 x 208,5 cm
Kunstmuseum Basel, Ankauf 1970
Foto: Kunstmuseum Basel
© The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Licensed by Bildrecht, Vienna 2024

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Medardo Rosso
Bookmaker, 1902–1903
Photo: mumok / Markus Wörgötter
Courtesy of Galleria d'Arte Moderna di Milano

[Translate to English:] Amedeo Modigliani Marie (Marie, fille du peuple), 1918

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Amedeo Modigliani
Marie (Marie, fille du peuple), 1918
Courtesy of Kunstmuseum Basel

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Auguste Rodin
Torse d'Homme, 1887–1888
CC0 Paris Musées / Petit Palais, Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris

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Medardo Rosso
Bambino malato, 1895
Photo: mumok / Markus Wörgötter
Museo Medardo Rosso, Barzio

Lynda Benglis Baby Contraband (Detail), 1969

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Bronzeskulptur eines Kopfes von Medardo Rosso

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Alina Szapocznikow
Fotorzeźby [Photosculptures], 1971/2007
20 Gelatinesilberabzüge und Collagen mit Text auf Papier, (Edition 5/12 + 2 AP)
30x 24cm
© ADAGP, Paris. Courtesy The Estate of Alina Szapocznikow / Piotr Stanislawski / Galerie Loevenbruck, Paris / Hauser & Wirth

Artists in dialogue with Medardo Rosso

Giovanni Anselmo / Guillaume Apollinaire / Francis Bacon / Nairy Baghramian / Olga Balema / Phyllida Barlow / Lynda Benglis / Louise Bourgeois / Anton Giulio Bragaglia / Constantin Brâncuși / Eugène Carrière / John Chamberlain / Honoré Daumier / Edgar Degas / Raymond Duchamp-Villon / Luciano Fabro / Loïe Fuller / Isa Genzken / Alberto Giacometti / Robert Gober / David Hammons / Eva Hesse / Jasper Johns / Hans Josephsohn / Ellsworth Kelly / Käthe Kollwitz / Yayoi Kusama / Maria Lassnig / Sherrie Levine / Matthijs Maris / Marisa Merz / Amedeo Modigliani / Robert Morris / Juan Muñoz / Senga Nengudi / Carol Rama / Auguste Rodin / Richard Serra / Georges Seurat / Erin Shirreff / Edward Steichen / Alina Szapocznikow / Paul Thek / Rosemarie Trockel / Hannah Villiger / Andy Warhol / Rebecca Warren / James Welling / Francesca Woodman

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Medardo Rosso

Artists in dialogue with Medardo Rosso