Art Chowder November | December, Issue 18 | Page 37

W ell-written didactic panels and large photo banners of the monumental works just noted supply a context that raises the exhibition of so many diverse fragments to an impressive model of museumship. Of course, primary credit goes to the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation, which had loaned twenty-two of the pieces on view and had previously donated three Rodins to the fledgling museum in 1995-1996. What would eventually become the largest and most comprehensive private collection of Rodin’s works began, as it were, by chance. Bernie Cantor, who became one of the most successful securities brokers in America, wandered into the Metropolitan Museum in New York in 1945 (the same year he started his business) and was instantly captivated by Rodin’s The Hand of God. Mr. Cantor described the revelation evoked by the large hand holding an amorphous mass of clay, from which a male and a female figure (Adam and Eve) were emerging, in this way, “I’d never seen anything that fascinated me so much,” he later said. “It was almost a religious experience.” 1 Thus began what he would call his “magnificent obsession” with the sculptor’s life and work. Together with his wife Iris, they would collect some 750 sculptures, drawings, and related materials. But their goals went far beyond mere acquisition. Their equal passion was “a real desire to see other people share the same pleasure” they found in their collection. They have “donated hundreds of works to dozens of cultural and educational institutions around the world. In addition, they have endowed museum galleries and sculpture gardens, funded research on Rodin and cultural history, and underwritten many landmark exhibitions.” Mr. Cantor cultivated a relationship with the Rodin Museum in Paris, which eventually resulted in casting a full scale version of The Gates of Hell in bronze, using the highly detailed “lost wax” method, a major undertaking that Rodin wished for but did not live to see. At a height of 21 feet and weighing eight tons, it can be seen at Stanford University’s Cantor Center for Visual Arts. 2 Auguste Rodin (French, 1840–1917) Hand of God, modeled 1898 Cast number and date unknown Bronze; Alexis Rudier Foundry Lent by Iris Cantor It may be helpful right at this point to refer to one of the important explanatory panels in the exhibition, entitled “ORIGINAL?” The sculptures of Rodin represent an exception to the usual art-world rule that limits the designation of an “original” to authorized works made during an artist’s lifetime. Rodin wanted a museum that would carry on his memory after his passing. The government could not finance such an endeavor using public money, so Rodin authorized posthumous casts, to be strictly under the museum’s control, in order to support the museum and assure the artist’s legacy in perpetuity. According to these terms the Rodins in the Cantor Collection are counted as authorized originals. November |December 2018 37