Medardo Rosso is not a name you are likely to know, but Renoir and Degas looked up to him as a friend who went in directions they would not have dared. Later artists, from the Italian futurists to Brancusi, considered him a mentor. Rosso’s experiments gave courage to those who would abandon the rules of classicism, and who were ready to dissolve form. He seduced his audience by making sculptures, photographs, and drawings that are at once sumptuous and mysterious. Opening today at the Kunstmuseum Basel, the large and comprehensive exhibition “Medardo Rosso: Inventing Modern Sculpture” is a rare opportunity to immerse yourself in a haunting universe.
Rosso’s work takes us on a journey by casting a spell of enchantment. The way he renders facial features in marble and plaster conjures up white truffles—their chalky color, the inexplicable appeal to our senses, and the subtlety with which they inspire emotional transport. But, also like white truffles, these sculptures appeal to a rarefied taste, which may explain why they are not as well known as the art of Auguste Rodin, a friend and competitor.
