Around Atlanta
Major Rodin Exhibition at the High Museum of Art This Fall
Auguste Rodin (French, 1840-1917) is one of the most celebrated sculptors of the modern age, represented in museums and private collections across the globe. However, this was not always the case. From his first sculpture to enter an American museum in 1893 and culminating with his popular revival in the 1980s, “Rodin in the United States: Confronting the Modern” — on view at the High Museum of Art Oct. 21, 2022-Jan. 15, 2023 — follows Rodin’s rise to eminence in America due in large part to the collectors, critics and curators who helped make it happen. The exhibition will also reveal Rodin’s incredible daring and inventiveness as he continually pushed against and beyond traditional notions of sculpture.
“Though now holding pride of place in major American museum collections, and renowned for its distinctive aesthetic, it’s perhaps only in the last 40 years that Rodin’s work has become recognized as among the greatest achievements in Modern art,” said Rand Suffolk, Nancy and Holcombe T. Green, Jr., Director of the High. “This exhibition takes the audience on a journey, as Rodin’s reputation builds, declines and rises again. It’s a fascinating story, illustrated by many of Rodin’s most striking and beautiful works.”
The 45 sculptures and 25 works on paper in the exhibition encompass many of Rodin’s best-known compositions, including “The Thinker,” “Monument to Balzac” and “The Kiss,” as well as less-familiar subjects and an exceptional number of his expressive and probing drawings. The works show Rodin working across an array of media — from terracotta and plaster to bronze and marble — and illuminate his creative process, from studies and maquettes to completed works.
“All of us have stood awestruck in front of Rodin’s more-than-life-size figures, like the 9-foot ‘Monument to Balzac’ or the massive, 2,000-pound ‘Thinker’,” said Claudia Einecke, the High’s Frances B. Bunzl Family curator of European art. “But it is a testament to Rodin’s unsurpassed power of evocation that even diminutive figures, such as the 5-inch ‘Female Torso’ or a 6-inch portrait head of the actress Hanako, can impress us with the same physical energy and monumental presence. Visitors will be delighted to see the breadth of Rodin’s work in this exhibition and to learn how he came to be among the 20th century’s most revered artists.”
Rodin’s path to acceptance in the United States was a complicated, winding one, and the stories of the collectors and institutions that embraced his work reveal a desire to look beyond the conventional to confront, and embrace, the modern.
Rodin first gained significant attention in the United States in 1893, when the Metropolitan Museum of Art made the first acquisition of his artwork by an American institution. That same year, he made his controversial debut at Chicago’s World’s Columbian Exposition with three marble sculptures, which were quickly judged too provocative and moved to a private space that was only accessible by request. As the exposition progressed, however, the censorship propelled public interest in his work.
This notoriety sparked an early-20th-century collecting frenzy, promoted by noted philanthropist Katherine Seney Simpson, avant-garde performer Loïe Fuller, and collector Alma de Bretteville Spreckels, among others. The exhibition details the intriguing confluence of these Rodin enthusiasts and the roles they played in generating interest in his art.
In the 1920s and 1930s, many American museums made important acquisitions of Rodin’s work, further fueling avid interest in the artist. However, these institutions tended to display his more finished, narrative subjects. The majority of his seemingly unfinished, fragmented or more “erotic” works — appreciated today for their daring and modernity — were consigned to storage, where they languished for years. By the Second World War, enthusiasm for his work had waned and critical sentiment regarding his art shifted, leading museums to relegate his sculptures to less prominent places or remove them from the public eye.
In 1954, Museum of Modern Art Director Alfred H. Barr Jr. requested a bronze cast of Rodin’s “Monument to Balzac” for the museum’s collection, which spurred scholars and critics to reappraise Rodin’s works. Nearly 30 years later, the National Portrait Gallery’s 1981 exhibition “Rodin Rediscovered” ushered in a resurgence of appreciation for Rodin’s art in the United States, which continues today.
“Confronting the Modern” traces these ebbs and flows of Rodin’s American popularity and includes loans of key works from more than 30 museums and private collections across the country. These works include:
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s “Bust of St. John the Baptist” (bronze, original model 1880, cast 1883), the first Rodin work to enter an American museum collection.
- The marble bust “Katherine Seney Simpson” (1903), which immortalized Rodin’s early advocate, who was instrumental in developing the Met’s Rodin collection and donated her private collection of his art to the National Gallery of Art upon her death.
- Bronze sculptures “The Thinker” (cast 1928) and “The Kiss” (cast 1888) from the Baltimore Museum of Art’s collection. “Rodin in the United States” marks the first time that the Baltimore Museum of Art has loaned “The Thinker” to an exhibition.
- The Museum of Modern Art’s “Monument to Balzac” (cast 1954), which instigated renewed interest in Rodin’s work.
- Drawings related to some of Rodin’s most famous compositions, such as “The Thinker” and “Ugolino and His Sons.”
- A group of diminutive plaster studies exploring the expressive power of the human hand, which were gifts from the artist to the Met’s Rodin Gallery, established in 1912.
“Rodin in the United States: Confronting the Modern” will be accompanied by a fully illustrated, 260-page catalogue edited by exhibition curator Antoinette Le Normand-Romain, with contributions by Christina Buley-Uribe, Patrick R. Crowley, C. D. Dickerson III, Laure de Margerie, Véronique Mattiussi, Elyse Nelson, Jennifer A. Thompson and Nora M. Rosengarten. The book is published by the Clark Art Institute and distributed by Yale University Press, New Haven.
The exhibition will be presented in the Cousins Family Special Exhibition Galleries on the Second Level of the High’s Wieland Pavilion.
Exhibition Organization and Support
“Rodin in the United States: Confronting the Modern” is organized by the Clark Art Institute, Williamston, Massachusetts, and guest curated by independent scholar Antoinette Le Normand-Romain.
This exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities. Funding for this exhibition is provided by Troutman Pepper.
Around Atlanta
MomoCon 2025 to bring 60,000 Fans to Atlanta for a Weekend of Cosplay, Animation, Gaming and Music
This year’s event is expected to have an economic impact of $42.4 million for the city.
MomoCon, the annual multi-genre, “geek culture” convention celebrating all things cosplay, comics, gaming, anime and music, is back for another exciting weekend at the Georgia World Congress Center, May 22–25 — marking its 20th anniversary in Atlanta.
One of the fastest growing, all-ages conventions in the country, MomoCon welcomed 56,000 guests in 2024. This year, more than 60,000 fans of Japanese anime, American animation, comics and gaming (video games, esports, tabletop, LARP) — from across the U.S. and around the world — are expected to show up and celebrate their passion.
According to the Atlanta Convention & Visitor’s Bureau, the four-day event is expected to have an economic impact of $42.2 million in metro Atlanta.
2025 highlights
New this year: The theme for MomoCon 2025 is “90s Retro.” Attendees will find a roller skating rink, expanded arcade and online gaming area and a return of the “Bring Your Own Computer” (BYOC) section.
Returning fan favorites include the Artist Alley, Exhibitor’s Hall, panels, raves and afterparties, the cosplay showcase, Disney singing contest and movie screenings.
There’s also a full schedule of workshops, live performances and appearances from over 150 special guests from across industries.
Featured guests
In fact, one of MomoCon’s biggest draws is the celebrity guests on hand each year for autographs and special sessions. A few of this year’s guests include:
Darryl McDaniels (from RunDMC) — a comic book and children’s book author who has also started a line of cookies.
Shadia Amin — a Colombian cartoonist from Atlanta (SCAD grad) currently working on graphic novels.
Greg Burnham — a comic book writer from Norcross who’s created indie comic hits “Tuskegee Heirs,” “The Search For Sadiqah,” “Little Rock Files” and “The Story of Solace.” His most recent is called “Bridges,” a story of four super-powered girls who band together to save Oakland from a group of evil bio-terrorists.
Brian Stelfreeze — comic book artist and an original member of Atlanta’s famed Gaijin Studios. Stelfreeze has worked with Marvel, DC and 12 Gauge comics on titles that include Batman, The Black Panther and Catwoman.
Daron Nefcy — creator and executive producer of Disney’s “Star vs. the Forces of Evil,” Netflix’s “We the People” and Nick’s “Robot and Monster.”
Reed Shannon — Raleigh, NC-based actor and star of Netflix’s “Arcane.”
Mick Wingert — voice actor whose work has appeared in “Arcane,” “What If?,” and “Kung Fu Panda.”
David Vincent — voice actor and producer who’s worked in animation, anime, video games (Resident Evil, Halo, Tekken, Super Street Fighter) and television (“NCIS,” “Criminal Minds,” “The Mentalist”).
Ryō Horikawa — Japanese voice of Vegeta in “Dragon Ball Z,” plus roles in “Saint Seiya” (Andromeda Shun); “Detective CONAN” (Hattori Heiji); and “Mobile Suit Gundam”
Chris Sabat — veteran voice actor, director and producer with a résumé that reads like a list of anime’s greatest hits. From the proud Saiyan prince Vegeta and the stoic swordsman Roronoa Zoro to the world’s greatest hero, All Might, and the slightly tipsy Yami from “Black Clover.”
A full list of 2025 celebrity guests can be found here.
MomoCon by the numbers
- Over the years, MomoCon has grown from a 700 person, on-campus gathering to the largest event in the southeastern U.S. for fans of gaming, animation, cosplay, comics and tabletop games.
- Thousands of attendees come out to each year to enjoy gaming, costuming (cosplay), browsing the huge exhibitor’s hall and meeting celebrity voice talent, designers and writers from their favorite shows, games and comics.
- It features the second largest open game hall in the United States. Open non-stop over the weekend, it spans 300,000+ sq. ft. of arcades, esports stages, PC and LAN gaming, console tournaments and freeplay, board and card gaming, RPGs and LARP.
- More than 90,000 square feet is dedicated to tabletop games, board games, card games, role playing games and miniatures. Want to learn a new game? Instructors are on hand to teach the hottest new games (and old games too).
- There’s also 300,000 square feet for celebrity autographs, vendors, workshops and international and indie game developers.
The details
MomoCon runs from 2 p.m. Thursday, May 22 through 5 p.m. Sunday, May 25 at the Georgia World Congress Center (Hall B). Additional events may take place at the nearby Omni Hotel and the Hilton Signia Downtown.
Registration is open now, with four-day or single day passes available. Four-day membership passes are $105 plus fees. Single days range from $50–$65 (kids 9 and under free).
Game tournament registration and separate concert tickets are also available.
Parking is limited in the area, and the GWCC lots do not take same-day reservations, so attendees are encouraged to take MARTA, if possible. The GWCC station is a short walk to the convention center.
You’ll find full details and a schedule of planned events at momocon.com.
Encounter mythical creatures in a natural landscape when “Spirit Guides: Fantastical Creatures from the Workshop of Jacobo and María Ángeles” opens March 29.
Immerse yourself in a breathtaking outdoor exhibit that intertwines Mexican cultures and contemporary art when “Spirit Guides: Fantastical Creatures from the Workshop of Jacobo and María Ángeles” opens at Fernbank Museum.
From March 29 to August 3, guests can enter a supernatural world as they walk alongside towering, brightly colored and richly patterned sculptures in the natural landscape of Fernbank’s WildWoods.
Presented in both English and Spanish, this collection of brightly-colored fiberglass sculptures depicts imaginary hybrid animals and offers visitors an unparalleled journey into an imaginative take on the spiritual landscape of southern Mexico’s Indigenous traditions.
Inspiration and legend
In creating “Spirit Guides,” artists Jacobo and María Ángeles were inspired by an ancient Zapotec stone calendar. Indigenous to southern Mexico, Zapotec culture is deeply connected to plants, seasons and animals.
“Spirit Guides” beckons visitors to travel into the spiritual landscape of Mexico’s Indigenous traditions through these animal sculptures that act as both spirit guides and astrological embodiments of human character.
Some of the hybrid animals depicted include a combination of a deer-butterfly or a coyote-fish. These larger-than-life sculptures depict patterns and designs that symbolize different aspects of Zapotec life and culture, such as happiness, fertility and community.
The artists have previously stated that, according to a Zapotec legend, when you are born an animal comes to you to serve as your protector in this world. This animal is your tona, a being that shares your destiny and soul.
Along with your tona, you also have a nahual, which is assigned based on the year of your birth. This spirit animal embodies characteristics that mirror your own personality.
As guests stand before the sculptures in WildWoods — some of which stand nearly 8 feet tall and 9 feet wide — they are made conscious of the profound connection between the natural and cosmological worlds.
About the Artists
Jacobo and María Ángeles are a married artist team based in Oaxaca, Mexico.
Joyful, fanciful and distinctively patterned, the Ángeles’ animal sculptures embrace both contemporary art and folk-art traditions. They employ and teach more than 100 artisans in their workshop, which has created artworks shown in museums around the world.
Exhibit details
By drawing inspiration from the Zapotec calendar and their own imaginations, the Ángeles team sculpted their own mythical creations.
This exhibit features eight towering, vibrant fiberglass sculptures of hybrid animals, intersecting art, mythology and identity. The sculptures were designed through a multi-step process that included conceptual sketches, small wooden renderings and papier mâché molds before casting the fiberglass.
A team of artisans then helped to paint the sculptures with striking colors and intricate geometric patterns inspired by Zapotec and other Indigenous designs, each with their own unique meaning.
Organized by Denver Botanic Gardens, “Spirit Guides: Fantastical Creatures from the Workshop of Jacobo and María Ángeles” is on view from March 29 – August 3, 2025. The exhibit is included with General Admission at Fernbank Museum and is free with CityPASS.
It will also be on view select nights when the museum is open, including during Fernbank After Dark and Fernbank … but Later.
For more information, please visit fernbankmuseum.org.
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