Auguste Rodin, The Kiss Exhibited At Turner Contemporary

Rodin The Kiss Turner Contemporary

Rodin’s The Kiss comes to Margate

From 4 October 2011 – to 2 September 2012 Auguste Rodin’s The Kiss, 1901-04 a life-size marble sculpture will be installed in the new Sunley Gallery.

The sculpture is on loan from the Tate collection and is one of the most iconic images of charged sexuality. The Kiss was voted the nation’s favourite work of art in a 2003 poll. The embracing couple comes from a true thirteenth-century story of forbidden love, which was immortalised in Dante’s Inferno and by many artists since.

The couple is the adulterous lovers Paolo Malatesta and Francesca da Rimini, who was slain by Francesca’s outraged husband. They appear in Dante’s Inferno, which describes how their passion grew as they read the story of Lancelot and Guinevere together.  At the time, the perceived eroticism of Rodin’s sculpture was controversial leading to instances where the work was removed from public view.

The sculpture’s arrival coincides with our second major exhibition. This exhibition explores how youth experience has been reflected in art, culture and the media from the late nineteenth century to the present day and will feature paintings, photographs, items of clothing and early JMW Turner works, many depicting the local area of East Kent.

Nothing in the World But Youth runs from 17 September 2011- 8 January 2012″.

 

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