Free Admission

Four full-scale, bronze figures by renowned sculptor Auguste Rodin (French, 1840–1917) will be on view at the Cincinnati Art Museum (CAM) this summer. Alongside them, visitors will see the culmination of a research and creative project led by artist and educator Supermrin that involved contemporary artists, University of Cincinnati (UC) undergraduates, and the breadth of CAM’s collections. Rodin | Response: FIELD family secrets will run June 14–September 8, 2024.

Rodin conceived the statues in the 1880s as part of The Burghers of Calais. One of the artist’s most revered and recognizable works, the monument commemorates six leading citizens of Calais who offered their lives to save their city in the mid-1300s.

These monumental bronzes provided the starting point for a semester-long journey of study, conversation, critique, and creation that took place across several courses at UC’s School of Art. The project was shaped through FIELD, Supermrin’s (Mrin Aggarwal) decolonial bio-art practice. The group worked to respond to Rodin’s accomplishments in sculpture and the complex history of France and its colonies at the turn of the 20th century, exploring the afterlives of modernism and colonialism through the art of today.

Rodin | Response: FIELD Family Secrets is organized by the Cincinnati Art Museum in collaboration with Supermrin and the School of Art, University of Cincinnati, and with the participation of the Iris Cantor Collection. The exhibition is sponsored by the Harold C. Schott Foundation.