Medardo Rosso: Sight Unseen and his Encounters with London

An exhibition of the works of Medardo Rosso (1858–1928), one of the founders of modern sculpture. Medardo Rosso: Sight Unseen and his Encounters with London is the first exhibition to focus on Rosso’s relationship with London.

The show features a selection of Rosso’s most representative sculptures in plaster, wax and bronze, as well as rarely shown drawings and, for the first time in the UK, his own photographs of his sculptures and drawings. Presented together, these help demonstrate how Rosso created his subtle yet powerful images, where forms seem to materialize and dematerialize in relationship to the effects of light and atmosphere.

Rosso was a revolutionary sculptor who subverted traditional modelling and casting methods to animate the surfaces of his sculptures. He went against prevailing monumental and heroic tendencies by depicting vulnerable subjects such the poor, children and the elderly. Some of his works, like Enfant au sein (late 1889–90), on view at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, border on abstraction. He adopted a performative approach to sculpture by casting his bronzes in public in a theatrical mise-en-scène, and he invented unique exhibition strategies by installing his work alongside those of other artists.