La Caixa

He not only revolutionised the art of sculpture, which had become relegated to a tedious discipline and reduced to the merely commemorative monument, but also demonstrated his modernity by choosing to exhibit his sculptures in the open air. Fittingly, more than a century later some of the most renowned works of Auguste Rodin (Paris, 1840 – Meudon, 1917) are to be erected in the public thoroughfares of Madrid, in an initiative of ”la Caixa” Social and Cultural Outreach Projects – in conjunction with the City Council – celebrating the first anniversary of CaixaForum Madrid which in just a year has received more than one and a half million visitors.

The Art in the Street. Auguste Rodin in Madrid exhibition brings together seven monumental sculptures from the Musée Rodin in Paris: The Thinker and six studies of the six prominent men that make up the Monument to the Burghers of Calais. The display forms part of the Art in the Street programme, a pioneering initiative of ”la Caixa” Social and Cultural Outreach Projects, the aim of which is to take art out of the exhibition halls, return it to the public space and bring about a dialogue with architecture. Never better said in the case of Rodin, who devised his sculptures to be exhibited in the open air.