Visiting Rodin in the British Museum

."Apparently, as the hot summer progresses  more and more people are visiting museums, as they are more likely to have air conditioning.”

To judge from the popularity of the British Museum the day I visited this cannot have been far off, or it might just be that the last two weeks before the end of the school year are a fantastic time for the traditional school trip.

The British Museum is at the moment running three exhibitions side by side.

In order of size:

“The past is present - becoming Egyptian in the 20th century”

A small collection of Egyptian material in Room 3 (the one next to the entrance) on how Egypt
uses the imagery of Ancient Egypt in its own modern culture. It is an eclectic collection of material
from Magazines of the 1950s and 60s to film clips via government publications and the emblem of the
Banque Misr, the first bank owned and managed by Egyptians in Egypt in the 20th century. The idea is
not bad, but somehow it felt a bit like an afterthought, as if somebody suddenly realised that there
should be something in that room, but was working with a very small budget and the result is a bit too
much local community museum and too little British Museum despite being part of the
"Modern Egypt project".

The same cannot be said of the other two exhibitions: The second exhibition in Room 5 (behind the shop at the entrance and off the Egyptian Hall or for aficionados "where the academic bookshop used to be") is “Charmed Lives in Greece - Ghika, Craxton, Leigh Fermor”. It traces the results of the friendship of these three artists (two painters and one writer) and their wives (some of whom provided some of the photographs shown in the exhibition) and their life in three very different parts of Greece: Hydra, Kardamyli on the Southern Peloponnese, Chania on Crete and finally Corfu. The large distances make it clear, that this is no artists' colony in the traditional sense.
But the artwork on display is a wonderful look back to the art of the second half of the twentieth
century in Greece and the way in which traditional architecture, art and most of all the landscape and
people influenced the work of all three and how they, in turn, influenced and supported each other
during their careers. Those who have visited the Benaki Museum in Athens will recognise some of the
paintings, but it is very informative to see them in the context of the loans from the Craxton Estate and
the other loans that the British Museum has been able to bring together.

The exhibition continues to the 15th July and if you have not seen it yet, I would very much recommend it.

The third exhibition and frankly the reason why I had come to the British Museum, is “Rodin and the art of ancient Greece”. I tend to leave my exhibition visits usually to the latter half of their run, by then the hype has
cooled down somewhat, and what I lose by not being able to contribute to dinner conversations is easily
made up by having more space to admire the items on display. Rodin was no difference. The exhibition
has been beautifully laid out, opening the exhibition space to the outside light and without the floor to
ceiling temporary walls that characterised earlier exhibitions. The sculptures are thus able to ‘breathe’
and even more work with each other, by allowing vistas across the room and the chance of looking back
to items displayed earlier in the show.

The stated theme to explore the extent to which Rodin was influenced by the art of the Parthenon and
the art of Greece and Rome, in general, is well developed and explained, but a second theme runs
alongside this: Rodin’s Gate of Hell as a central point of his sculpture career, so there are several
narrative lines in the exhibition and the large open spaces allow you to choose, which line to follow.

The exhibition has thus a very different feel to many prior British Museum exhibitions which often major
in dramatic lighting and music effects for amazing archaeological finds. My fingers wished I had brought
my sketchbook (I am not sure the British Museum or the other visitors would have appreciated that quite
so much), but there seemed to be no restrictions on taking mobile phone pictures on the day I visited so
I might get to do my sketching from the snaps.

A large amount of natural light and artificial lighting imitating/enhancing the natural light offers a
wonderful way of exploring both the antique and modern sculptures and shows that Rodin’s surface
work actually can already be seen in old statuary, especially if it is fragmented and not over-restored, like
much of Rodin's own collection of Classical remains was.

The displays allow you to draw wonderful comparisons and also to appreciate what Rodin himself
brought to the sculptures, making them so memorable. By the time the visitor is confronted with the
“Burghers of Calais” and Rilke’s descriptions of them, there is a new level at which one can appreciate the artwork, and the origins of some of the ways Rodin chose to the execute this group.

One of the beauties of this exhibition is the way in which it gives you the freedom to explore. Whether
you just want to get those Rodin sculptures of your bucket list/exam prep, whether you were following
the laid-out course of learning of the exhibition or whether you decide to explore details of your own
choosing, there is a lot to look at and appreciate which goes far beyond the stated 'learning outcome',
as the comments of the various visitors showed.

This exhibition is still on until July 29th and is well worth the entrance fee of £17, I might even be back myself.