Antoine Bourdelle (1861-1929) served as Rodin's assistant and mentor to Giacometti, Jeman Lisier, maria Elena Vera da Scileva. In the most glorious era of French sculpture, he was a key figure in the succession, and together with Rodin and Mayor, he was regarded as the three pillars of modern sculpture.
Buddell was also a teacher to Chinese artists Chang Yu, Pang Xuanxuan, and Pan Yuliang, but he was not so famous in China. Like Rodin, Boudell has a museum converted from his studio in Paris, France. It is reported that in 2018, the Buddell Museum will bring its collection of treasures to China to hold exhibitions, and the China Art Palace in Shanghai will be an important stop. A few days ago, during the visit of Amelie Simier, director of the Budel Museum, the www.thepaper.cn news conducted a special interview with him.
Amelie Smyer at the Boudle Museum
The Paper: Buddell was once Rodin's assistant, how did Rodin influence him?
SMYER: The relationship between these two great artists is very close. Rodin hired him as an assistant at the time, and they worked closely together for 12 years, from the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century. They are not only assistants and masters, but also very good friends. At the time, Buddell was in his studio, carving according to the style Rodin wanted. They were both living in Paris at the time, but they wrote letters to each other, and we have now sorted out these correspondences.
During this period, Buddell's artistic style also slowly developed and matured, until 1905, when his own style took shape. In his 40s, Buddell wanted to build his own business, so he left Rodin as a teacher. At that time, he created a bust of Rodin. Now this bust is in the central garden of the Boudl Museum, and there is also one in the Rodin Museum. The work also pays homage to Boudell for Rodin.
The Paper: Buddell and Rodin's artistic concepts later also had some differences. From the perspective of art history, how to see this divergence?
Smiyer: Everybody can have that experience. At the beginning, following the teacher's style, in this process, slowly forming their own ideas, feeling what they want to express, and slowly departing from the teacher's style. He did too. Rodin is very expressive, delicately showing the expression and connotation of the sculpture. Buddell's way of expression is more holistic, more focused on his own structure, and more rational. It was the same when he was a teacher. He will give students a holistic concept and encourage them to explore their own style.
In a way, the difference between the two of them also represents a change of time. At the turn of the 20th century, Rodin was a master in the absolute sense and influenced a generation. Rodin died in 1917, when French sculptors gathered around Buddell, who was equivalent to another generation of masters who took over the mantle. Around 1910, there was a trend from delicate, figurative expression to a more pure, simple, understated style.
Buddell (left) with Rodin
The Paper: We know that Brancusi was also a student of Rodin, and his rebellion against tradition is even more intense, even further than Buddell's.
SM: Exactly. Brancusi really wanted to be more detached from the influence of the master. He once said that in the shadow of a large tree, no grass can grow. He differed from Boudell in that he was not educated in the orthodox Academy of Fine Arts. Originally growing up in Romania, his willingness to detach from the master was more intense, not as soft as orthodox.
There are also changes in the next generation of Buddell. Giacometti was a student of Buddell, and he reflected the teacher's ideas into his work and showed his own style. At that time, he exhibited a bust in the Salon in Paris, composed of geometric elements, the overall feeling is very abstract, different from the previous works, and at the same time shows Professor Buddell's sense of structure and rationality. Buddell retains the essence of the previous generation while adding the characteristics of the new era, which is the development of generation after generation.
In the 1920s, in addition to Giacometti, there were a number of Chinese artists studying with Buddell, including the more famous Chang Yu, Pang Xuanxuan, and Pan Yuliang, whose research was just beginning, and my good friend Eric Lefebvre, director of the Senucci Museum, was doing this research. I was also eager to know the details of this, which is very interesting material.
The Paper: On the one hand, he is a very powerful sculptor, but also an art educator full of peach and plum, and his artistic ideas and achievements actually continue into later creations.
SMYER: That's very accurate. First of all, he was a great sculptor, with many breathtaking works, the most famous of which was the 1910 hercules of the bow. The hollowing out in the middle of the sculpture is very dynamic and tense, and this shape was a very big innovation at the time, and it also caused a great sensation.
As an educator, his greatest achievement, and his greatest pride, is that each of his students has developed his own style. He once said that every bird should sing its own song.
Boudell Museum
Beethoven Sculpture Exhibition Hall of the Buder Museum
The Paper: Speaking of his creations, we know that he has done a lot of Beethoven's sculptures. In addition to the inheritance of sculpture, how did other art forms such as literature and music influence him?
SMYER: Actually, according to himself, he wasn't very accomplished in music. But Beethoven's face touched him. Buddell felt it was the face of a genius: a large forehead and flowing hair. Between 1886 and 1929, he created more than 80 beethoven heads. In the field of sculpture, he had a research he was doing on his own, not a creation for orders.
Although he was not a very good musician, he was also a poet. He enjoys writing, writing letters to people around him, writing some poems himself, and he pays special attention to the art of language when preparing lessons for students. He also wrote art reviews for newspapers and periodicals, and once wrote an article commenting on Rodin's paintings. Ordinary people do not pay much attention to Rodin's paintings, but only to his sculptures. Rodin also gave him some of the paintings back to him, which are now in our museum. It is possible that he was the first to be able to read Rodin's paintings.
There is also a funny tacit understanding between Rodin and Buddell, that is, they both like to buy antiques. They often went to French antique dealers to buy antiques, from ancient Egypt and greece. At that time, Rodin was richer, Buddell could not buy so expensive, the same style, he introduced Rodin to buy large pieces, buy small pieces himself. There is now a wall in the Rodin Museum that exhibits antiques he bought. The Buddell house had a small cabinet that also displayed antiques he had bought, which of course could not be compared to Rodin's in terms of volume and value.
The Paper: We generally think that sculptors' paintings are often used to assist sculpture creation, but in fact, Buddell's paintings also have their own independent value, is that right?
Smyer: Less than 20 percent of Buddell's paintings are related to his sculptures, and the rest are purely personal hobbies. He was very fond of painting the American dancer Isadora Duncan, and he drew many dance gestures, showing the trajectory of movement with very fast brushstrokes. Later, he created a sculpture, also inspired by this dancer, in the theater on the Champs Elysées, with the face of Duncan. But this is not directly related to his paintings, but is related in terms of inspiration.
We exhibit his paintings of dancers at the Shanghai exhibition, as well as reliefs he made in the theater, and we can see that although they are the same person, they are in different styles and ways.
The Paper: What else will be the content of this exhibition in China?
Smyer: After two years of exchanges with local art museums in China, we are also discussing what works are more appropriate. Last year, we proposed a proposal to show Boudell's work for 10 years after 1910. Neither his early stages under the influence of Rodin nor the many public sculpture tasks he received in his final stages, but the middle section, his most praised sculpture in the mature period of his style. Including his best-known Hercules with a Bow, penillope, The Fruit, the Head of Apollo, and reliefs from the Champs-Elysées Theatre. We will show the most stylish works of his best era to Chinese audiences. Through this exhibition, people can also see how he has broken through the tradition step by step and developed a more modern sculpture concept.
In fact, we will also hold an exhibition in Paris this autumn, showing more than 40 bronze sculptures of him, some large and some small, including "The Dying Centaur", which is 2.8 meters. There are also more than 20 of his paintings, more than 40 of his photographs, and he is also a photography enthusiast. His works often depict characters, heroes, and gods from Greek mythology, and in our exhibitions in Paris, he explains the roots and backgrounds of myths and stories, and in Shanghai.
The Budel Museum was transformed from a studio, and we hope that when the audience steps into the museum, they will feel where these sculptures were created a century ago. I hope that when we hold exhibitions around the world, we can also bring this feeling to local audiences through cooperation with local teams.
Boudell Museum Exhibition Hall
Boudell Museum Studio
The Paper: Like the Rodin Museum, the Boudle Museum was converted from his original studio, can you briefly introduce the development of the Budell Museum and the museum's collection?
SMIER: Boudell came to Montparnasse in 1885 when he was 20 years old and was a very poor artist. He took root in the area and slowly developed his career until his death in 1929. Before his death, he had been helping to build the Rodin Museum, and he wanted a museum named after himself. He originally wanted a brand new museum, and after his death, his widow felt that instead of building a new museum, it would be better to respect the environment in which he worked and live, and build an exhibition hall next to his studio and garden. Now people like such museums, which can better show the environment and background of the birth of works.
The artist died in 1929, and 20 years later, his widow and daughter donated most of their work, the land, and the building to the city of Paris, hoping that it would be a museum open to the public. After that, the museum was owned by the city of Paris and managed by his family members until 2002, when Boudell's daughter died, after which the city sent its curator. I am the second curator.
Our collection has 30,000 pieces, including 6,000 paintings, 15,000 photographs, 6,000 sculptures, and objects and documents he left behind at that time. After the war, it is particularly valuable that these documents can be preserved.
Boudell's sculptures began to be enlarged during his lifetime, and his wife and daughter later made some. As a result, Buddell's works, such as Hercules with a Bow, can now be seen all over the world, not only in Paris, but also in Los Angeles and Tokyo. It was also a strategy to make his work more known to the public, and Rodin did the same, and So did Buddell's family.
His family has also been working hard all over the world to hold exhibitions, but unfortunately they did not come to China before they died. They have also always hoped that Chinese audiences will know more about Buddell, after all, there are many Chinese artists among his students.
The Paper: Rodin's works are popular all over the world, and there are several pieces of The Thinker in Shanghai. But sometimes artists' work is too prolific, which can lead to controversy over copyright. What is the market situation in Budel?
Smyer: When he died in 1929, France had a rule that each sculpture could not have more than 12 originals. During his lifetime, Buddell wanted to limit the number of works and ensure the rarity of the works, and he personally made no more than 10 pieces. For example, his most famous "Hercules of the Bow", there are three different specifications, each of which has made 10, and it is now impossible to get it. Because these 30 have already been made.
On the one hand, there is a limit to the quantity, and on the other hand, artists also need to ensure that their works are well protected in the process of reproduction. We are very cautious about the protection of Buddell's works, both in quantity and quality. At the moment, there is not much of a problem.
The Paper: As mentioned earlier, Buddell has made a lot of public sculptures. Now, in addition to the Buddell Museum, where can some of his more important works be seen?
Smyer: There are some in the Musée d'Orsay, and during Buddell's lifetime, the French government purchased some of his works, including Hercules with a Bow and The Head of Napoleon. The Rodin Museum also houses some of his works. Boudre was born in Montauban, and the painter Ingres was born in Montauban as well. If you go to Montauban, you'll find a lot of their work there, one is sculpture and the other is painting. There are also many in Japan and the United States, on the one hand, many of his students are Japanese and American students, who bought a lot of works after his death and placed them in public areas or in relatively private sculpture parks. There are also some of his art lovers in the United States who will buy his works. In 1910, the Argentines placed an order with him, and the large sculptures were shipped to Argentina, and now in the Argentine museum, there are "Hercules with a Bow", and "Portrait of General Alvia", and the very spectacular "The Dying Centaur".
A private museum in South Africa housed more than 30 Bouder works in the 1960s and 1970s, and Prince Eugene of Sweden purchased some in 1920, including Hercules of the Bow. Russia seems to have his work too. As far as I know, there are no works of his in China yet. But I'm sure it will be soon. Our exhibition is also designed to show them Bouder's artistic achievements.
This time I stayed in China for 6 days, walking 4 cities, Beijing, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Shanghai, I saw a lot of public sculptures. There are also a lot of public sculptures in Paris, but people don't care. There are also many sculptures in China now, especially those with a modern feel. I think Chinese is very open and welcoming to sculpture.
There are also many collections in the China Art Palace, which is a very good sculpture. This time our exhibition came to China, and we also hope that in addition to Shanghai, there will be a second and third stage of exhibitions. On the one hand, it is to save the museum, and on the other hand, it is also hoped that people in different cities can understand Buder's art.
Boudell Museum Garden
See the studio from the Boudl Museum Garden
The Paper: Is there much going on at the Buddell Museum and the exchanges between different art galleries and museums around the world, including cooperation with different artists?
SMIR: At the moment we have very little interaction with contemporary artists. My previous curator was an expert on contemporary art and had some collaborations during his tenure. If you want to combine Buddell's work with contemporary art, which died in 1929, it must be a very harmonious cooperation, and you need to find the right object of cooperation. First of all, the artist needs to have a sense of empathy and resonance with Buddell's work. At the same time, contemporary art works need to be suitable and not obtrusive in the museum. In the past 10 years, there have also been some good cooperation.
Two years ago, there was such a cooperative event. Contemporary dancers at the National Centre des Arts et de Nantes are also very impressed with Boudell's sculptures, and the gestures of movement in their works give them a lot of inspiration. During that time, the museum was open to visitors at night, and dancers created dances that matched Budell's sculptures, performing in the gaps between the works in the exhibition halls, guiding visitors to the tour. A very beautiful and amazing performance was presented.
Our museum is also open to students of the Academy of Fine Arts. They would take the drawing board to the museum to paint. We felt very good too. It was as if Budel's studio had never disappeared, had always been there, and had brought young people together here.