Rodin and the art of ancient Greece, British Museum, London, review: There's a lovely, easy panache to this show

The British Museum finally enters the 21st century – by taking a clean, modern approach to a show of ancient sculpture 

Michael Glover
Tuesday 24 April 2018 13:33 BST
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Unmounted  youths  preparing  for  the  cavalcade,  block  from  the  north  frieze  of  the  Parthenon, about 438–432  BC
Unmounted youths preparing for the cavalcade, block from the north frieze of the Parthenon, about 438–432 BC

This show is about two love affairs in one: Rodin's passion for the sculpture of ancient Greece, and his unswerving attachment to the British Museum and the Elgin Marbles, which he first visited in 1881, when he was 40.

He made a lifelong study of them. He emulated their emotional commitment to the sheer, uplifting power of the human figure, whether whole or fragmentary. You could even say that he was in a mighty, Dantean struggle with the ghost of Pheidias until his dying day.

Who was the greater master? Who conquered whom in the end? That's for you to decide.

The first surprise here are some words of inclusive exhortation you can read as you enter. Have I really read these words in a public exhibition at the British Museum? FEEL FREE TO TAKE PHOTOS. SHARE YOUR EXPERIENCE. I rub my eyes in disbelief. Still doggedly there.

What about all those old-style prohibitions, once so eagerly enforced by crabby, moneygrubbing copyright holders pent up sweatily in their wormy attics? Has the British Museum entered the 21st Century (our century) with a bang? Yes.

What strikes you about this exhibition is the lovely, easy panache of its staging, emphatic evidence of modernity in a building which has been drum-bangingly neoclassical since its inception. A display juxtaposing ancient and modern(ish) sculpture has been given a real lift, and a genuinely commanding presence.

And yet these Sainsbury Exhibition Galleries, tucked tidily away at the back of the ground floor of the British Museum, are not exactly new. They've been here for at least two years. The Vikings occupied them for a while – if you get my drift.

They've never looked quite so clean lined or stripped back as this though. This could be a German boilerhouse. The space has been transformed into a single long gallery whose sight lines eventually lead the eye on to great windows with trees and even the prospect of gardens. Trees! Gardens! This could even be, if you think fancifully enough, a bit of a reprise of the extension of the Met in New York.

You can see across exhibits with such ease, comparing and contrasting as you go; many of the objects are displayed on low-level white plinths. So much here is about the emotional power of magnificent gesturing – of arm, leg, entire bodies flung out prone in diaphanous draperies.

In short, Rodin and the art of ancient Greece – and much of the ancient Greek part of this exhibition consists of marvellous fragments from the Parthenon, transported from their home just a few hundred yards away – look as good here as they could possibly look anywhere.

The exhibition's story is a good one, and it's well told. It's also edging the museum away from the kind of exhibition which feels dependent for its success on the burden of overmuch scholarship on the fast and loose – and that can be a real problem in spite of what the scholars may think. The descriptive wall panels are larger, shorter and more fleet of foot, although the biography of Rodin himself is ludicrously short on detail – that's a shame.

Most to be commended are the quotes about Rodin and his work by his sometime secretary, the great poet Rainer Maria Rilke. No one has written about Rodin quite like Rilke – the depths of understanding combined with the eloquence of expression are breathtaking.

'Rosin and the art of ancient Greece' is on until 29 July (britishmuseum.org)

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