The Making of Rodin review – not a radical, just a plain old genius

Tate Modern, London
All the plaster casts in the world cannot convince me Rodin was a modernist. Luckily his fantastic, eloquent art is amazing

The daylight streams in through Tate Modern’s big windows perfectly illuminating the novelist Balzac. His face is angry and stern, his body swathed in a massive, shapeless gown. This lack of defined form is exactly what horrified Parisians when Rodin’s full-sized plaster model for a monument was unveiled in 1898.

For the novelist and art critic Émile Zola, Rodin was the perfect artist to make a monument to the sprawling chronicler of politics and modern life, and he helped him get this prestigious commission. But when Rodin exhibited the model, all hell broke loose. Looking at its bizarre presence, I see why Rodin could be regarded as the founder of modern sculpture.

The Making of Rodin is at Tate Modern, London, from 18 May to 21 November.

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