Camille Claudel at Art Institute of Chicago

 A review of Camille Claudel at the Art Institute of Chicago.

Camille Claudel, The Implorer, 1898

When has an art museum ever mounted a show about a single artist and included so many references to his or her  mentor?  Camille  Claudel (1864-1943) worked in the studio of Rodin from 1883 through the early 1890's and a crouching figure by Rodin is shown next to one by Claudel so we may compare them.   Gallery signage tells us that Rodin's is "openly sexualized" while Claudel’s shows "the lived reality of a woman’s body apart from the fantasies of the male gaze". 

Rodin, Crouching Woman, 1882

Openly sexualized? Well , this person is definitely female- but with the pained expression and protective gesture, it’s more like modern dance than male fantasy.  

Camille Claudel, Crouching Woman, 1884-5

Presumably this is less like a male fantasy because the knees are tightly together. But it’s also less like sculpture and more like the record of a model posing.  It does not seize and dynamically organize space  (and by the way, the Rodin piece is poorly lit in this exhibition. The image I’ve shown is from the museum that owns the piece)

For further comparison, you might walk up to the second floor to see two of Rodin’s major  achievements made while  Claudel was in his studio:

Rodin, Jean D'Aire (1889)

 If you don't see how the intensity of this sculpture stands apart from Claudel this review will probably not change your mind.  Every fleshy detail, as well as the piece as a whole, erupts into space with a jolt - as does the profundity of the human experience it dramatically presents.  You are pulled deep beneath the turbulent but organized surface into the inner spirit that generated it.  But to experience that spirit, the viewer must seek it out -   and not just query the character of the person being represented.

Like the French Academy dating all the way back to Charles Le Brun, Claudel is an illustrator of ideas.  Her job was done when you got that idea, could admire the mimesis, and are pleased by the overall design.  Her masterpiece, "The Age of Maturity", depicting herself rejected by Rodin and his lifelong companion, Rose,  is a  "me too" story of sexual exploitation that resonates much more  now than then.  The three life size figures are notably awkward in space - though an upward flying swirl of drapery that might have united the composition was not available to travel to this exhibition.

Camille Claudell, Age of Maturity, 1894-1900

This pastiche is so heavy, sad, awkward, and lugubrious, the missing piece may not have made much difference, but I’ve circled it anyway.  It’s in the Musee Rodin, but it belongs in a Temple of Despair.  

Camille Claudel, Giganti or Head of a Brigand, 1885

Whether or not you want to call Rodin "the father of modern sculpture", he did seem to be at the center of a rising demand for visual art to connect emotion to form rather than just  narrative.     Claudel may have captured the turbulent fluidity of Rodin’s  surface, but beneath it, her work feels shallow, dull and lifeless.  She was still old school - which is not to say that she could not produce  elegant things - especially portraits.  A hundred years later, what was old school in 1890 is new school in 2023 with a renewed emphasis on a politically correct narrative.  (see the review quoted below)

Bourdelle, Despieu, Maillol and the others who led sculpture into the twentieth century may have to wait another hundred years to again be understood and appreciated.

****

Professor Frank Geiger, writing in New City, tells us that:

"Claudel’s story strongly resonates with an audience increasingly frustrated by museums celebrating the same tired cohort of white male artists whose canon status prevents their problematic and abusive actions from tarnishing their reputation with the general public"…….  So perhaps it’s finally time to cancel Rodin and throw his works into the dustbin of history —- to be replaced by a woman who "was the finest sculptor of her time, bar none."