Art: Conversations with Paul Gsell

Quantum Books

by Auguste Rodin

Rodin, the nineteenth century French sculptor, shares his thoughts on artistic expression, traditions and changes in sculpture, and the social role of the artist.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Art History, France, Essays

130 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1911

About the author

Auguste Rodin (born François-Auguste-René Rodin) was a French artist, most famous as a sculptor. He was the preeminent French sculptor of his time, and remains one of the few sculptors widely recognized outside the visual arts community.

Although Rodin is generally considered the progenitor of modern sculpture, he did not set out to rebel against the past. He was schooled traditionally, took a craftsman-like approach to his work, and desired academic recognition, although he was never accepted into Paris's foremost school of art. Sculpturally, he possessed a unique ability to model a complex, turbulent, deeply pocketed surface in clay.

Many of Rodin's most notable sculptures were roundly criticized during his lifetime. They clashed with the predominant figure sculpture tradition, in which works were decorative, formulaic, or highly thematic. Rodin's most original work departed from traditional themes of mythology and allegory, modeled the human body with realism, and celebrated individual character and physicality. Rodin was sensitive to the controversy about his work, but did not change his style, and successive works brought increasing favor from the government and the artistic community.

From the unexpected realism of his first major figure—inspired by his 1875 trip to Italy—to the unconventional memorials whose commissions he later sought, Rodin's reputation grew. By 1900, he was a world-renowned artist. Wealthy private clients sought Rodin's work after his World's Fair exhibit, and he kept company with a variety of high-profile intellectuals and artists. He married his life-long companion, Rose Beuret, in the last year of both their lives. His sculpture suffered a decline in popularity after his death in 1917, but within a few decades his legacy solidified.

Reviews

[EstelleLiterature · Rating 5 out of 5]

I live in the town where Rodin settled when he moved out of Paris. Between my place and his, there's a railway track that dates from 1901. In the evenings, it's a beautiful walk along the rail tracks, a walk that gains more beauty as I approach Rodin's garden and see "The Thinker" on his grave, the original of his masterpiece, bathed by the dwindling sunlight. I forget walking; I stop to think.

And this is what Rodin intended "The Thinker" for: he wanted the statue's viewers to think.

What makes me think? The statue's posture: the body's twist, the head's tilt, the hand's curve around the chin. They inspire me by their contagion; I can't help thinking.

What do I think about? Not the statue, not the garden, not the heavenly light. I think of me, of my life; if I like myself the way I am; if I am the way I should be; if I'm connecting with my inner world, with the world of my friends and families, with the larger world and its issues that share my passion.

In short, The Thinker, holds a mirror in front of me: the mirror of my soul. In that mirror, I see how I'm doing, if I can do better, if I should do better. That mirror shows me how I feel about myself. And that is the purpose of art. When we watch a piece of art, we aren't watching that piece; we're watching ourselves through it. And how we rate that piece depends on how it makes us feel about ourselves. In his book, What is Art, Tolstoy has a similar reflection; without this value, a work isn't a piece of art.

Twenty-six years ago, when I returned to France from England, I became steeped into the negative stuff bombarded by the media. I felt hopeless and restless. I started reading certain books that sank me deeper into my despair, but I kept reading them because they resonated with the state of my mind. Then, one day, I had enough. I threw these books into the garbage and pulled out a book I've always treasured, a book that has now fallen out of the French curriculum and been replaced by some genre literature in most French schools, a book published in 1862 that still continues to thrive today outside France: "Les Miserables," by Victor Hugo. A book that has revived my mind's taste buds thickened by the "fast food" literature. A book that would live for several more centuries on the face of Earth.

The publisher who published Hugo's "Notre Dame de Paris" held the first right to publish this book (called "Les Misères" in its first draft); he found this book slow, tiring, boring, sleep-inducing, and violent because it addressed some serious social diseases with brutal honesty. Yet the same publisher wouldn't let this book go lest someone else publish it. The conflict almost led to a duel between Hugo and his publisher. The dual didn't happen because the publisher eventually saw Hugo's human worth and the value of this work. The event held up a mirror before this publisher; he saw his own worth, he was able to put this work above his personal pride, he released his grip on Hugo's manuscript.

Despite its violent scenes, does "Les Miserables" leave me depressed and despaired?

No. When the archbishop pardons Jean Valjean for stealing his silver and chandelier; when Jean Valjean spares his relentless follower Javert in the barricade; when Javert sacrifices his own life, to save Jean Valjean from unfair justice; when Thenardier's evil intention to assassinate Jean Valjean's character before Marius turns, by a twist of the fate, into an act of liberation: all these uplifting, expansive, noble acts leave me with a positive balance, feeling hopeful about our human race.

I ignore the media bombardment. I believe in myself and my people. I believe that, no matter what happens, noble always dominates the evil. The noble may be rare, but it's there. The evil may be plenty, but nobility wins despite its rarity. Someone I care for always says this to me: "The beauty wouldn't be beautiful, if they came in plenty. The compost may be putrid and ugly, but it does serve a purpose: it feeds the flower that grows on it. The flower then charms a wider world with its beauty. If the compost weren't there, there would be no one to nourish the flower; the flower wouldn't exist."

Art holds that dual power: it can make the beauty more beautiful by providing stark contrast.
It can show and shine our inner beauty buried by the outer compost.

That is, of course, if we choose to see this beauty.
Choice needs proactive efforts.
We can make that effort.

[Iulia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Am cumpărat această carte "la nimereală", ca o pregătire pentru o alta care îl cuprinde tot pe sculptorul Rodin.
Paul Gsell, a avut perspicacitatea să facă din întâlnirile cu Rodin o lucrare de artă, consemnând conversațiile cu acesta despre ideile artistice ale bătrânului sculptor.
Am avut o lectură tihnită și savuroasă, datorită căreia am și descoperit o noua lucrare de artă, "Mâna lui Dumnezeu" pe care sa o adaug la lucrările mele preferate.
Ce mi-a plăcut cel mai mult a fost finalul.
"Testament" este capitolul în care Rodin lasă tinerilor dornici de a fi "ministranți ai frumuseții," un rezumat al experienței sale, aproximativ 15 sfaturi clare și onorabile, numai bune să mă pună pe gândit și să îmi ofere motivația potrivită.

[Annie Jeng · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Art is the most sublime mission of man, since it is the expression of thought seeking to understand the world and to make it understood.”

I was surprised at the amount of wisdom Rodin had! Scratch all the bad stuff I’ve ever said about him. He really deserves all the respect he has gotten because not only did he work relentlessly at his craft, he truly modernized and found new meaning to sculpture. At a time when sculpture as a medium started to lose its foothold in art because people believed painting to be superior and more able to modernize, Rodin revolutionized sculpture and gave it new life. Based on conversations with his protégé, this book is Rodin’s contemplation of both art and life in his later years. His love for art and his appreciation of nature and of the world really shines through.

“To any artist, worthy of the name, all in nature is beautiful, because his eyes, fearlessly accepting all exterior truth, read there, as in an open book, all the inner truth.”

Through art, he has also glimpsed the meaning of life. Although life is full of struggles and difficulty, he chooses to face it with peacefulness.

“As for me, I ceaselessly endeavor to render my outlook on nature even more calm, more just. We should strive to attain serenity.”

[Coeurnoble · Rating 5 out of 5]

Magnifique testament de Rodin et de son rapport à la nature et à l’art

[Felipe Silva · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Pero para todos, sin excepción, seguros estamos de que L´Art de Augusto Rodin constituirá una lectura deleitosa e inolvidable, una de esas obras que siempre se recuerdan con respeto y gratitud, que en ella reconocemos un factor sustancial de la formación de nuestra cultura y de la afiliación de nuestra sensibilidad. Es que en una palabra, estamos en presencia de un libro viviente"
Prologo, L´Art de Augusto Rodin.


L´Art de Augusto Rodin (escultor francés), es un libro relatado por Paul Jose Gsell (Artista y crítico de arte francés) que nos relata fragmento y partes de conversaciones de el y el artista, donde se abordan diversos temas de el arte, como se relaciona con la poesía, su forma de verlo y la forma en que lo ve la sociedad, enfatizando también sobre la filosofía del arte en la vida de Rodin.
Selección de fotos obras, tanto pinturas como esculturas impresionante, pensando que el libro se publico originalmente en 1918.
Se los recomiendo totalmente, para comprender y tener un nuevo punto de vista del arte, con un vocabulario no complejo y fácil de discernir.

[Daria Heimur · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perhaps it is necessary that the suns should go out? We live beside such beautiful things, and most of us do not see them! And even among those who see, they convince and hold too few! Our ignorance of masterpieces is the forgetting of our truth. Beauty, entering through the eyes, awakens the heart to love, and without love nothing has value. But love is no longer taught. If the understanding of beauty is a matter of education, of enlightenment, how can we be deprived of it, we, modern men, privileged among the privileged? Are not Egypt, Assyria, India, Persia, Greece, Rome gathered together in our museums?On our soil we have the majestic ruins - Gothic, Romanesque and these charming wonders, our old houses, beautiful in their proportions down to the First Empire, so sternly elegant in the style of bygone days, with that eloquence, even in their restraint, which sometimes is limited to a simple belt-course without carving. We possess all these things, and our architects build mansions which you know well.

[casually_20th_century · Rating 5 out of 5]

The introduction by Louis Weinberg was pretty good, not overly dramatic. The selection of sculptures by Rodin was pretty good but some of the angles of the photos weren't great, although the pictures are over 100 years old so can't really complain. (Facsimile of a book originally published in 1918.)

[Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Louis Weinberg provides a brief introductory essay on some of Rodin's most revered and reviled sculptures, plus biographical context. The largest part of the book are black-and-white prints of some 60 masterpieces, including "The Bronze Age", "The Old Courtesan", "The Kiss", "The Thinker", "The Balzac Statue", and "The Burghers of Calais" - a splendid little book.

[Revanth Ukkalam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although only words, a description of Rodin sculpting clay magically into first a Phidias and then a Michelangelo, appeared like an image before me. Under the spell of imagination and scintillating language, the bed I sat on and the dark room I was in turned into a sunkissed garden in France. And Rodin turned into God. Blessed we are always, for such books. That work like magic.

[Tamanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

it was good but i didn't get a chance to read all the chapters. learnt how much hard work and burden it is to be a genius

[Celestin Büche · Rating 5 out of 5]

First class book!

[Steven · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful insights. I particularly enjoy his analysis on other artists such as Houdon, Michelangelo, and Phidias.

[Clàudia Moyés · Rating 2 out of 5]

posaria un 2/⁵ però goodreads va limitat amb aquestes coses. igualment interessant en molts sentits!

[Charlene]

I’m a Rodin fan so I truly enjoyed this extra understanding.

[Tech Nossomy · Rating 3 out of 5]

"All is ugly, all is made in haste and without grace by stupid machines." And so the letters by the french sculptor Rodin on Art are prefaced. The irony is that we these days feel the same way about things created today and regard what was made during the time of the writing of the book, ie 1912, as esthetic. Perhaps we collectively suffer from survivorship bias. Written a few years before his death at age 77, and edited by Paul Gsell, much of the text is presented as a dialogue between the two gentlemen.

The text is more about views on art, rather than actually making art, as well as being prosaically rich in praise and rhetorical questions. The theme of the book can be summed up in one of the sentences in chapter XII: "the word artist, in its widest acceptation, means to me the man who takes pleasure in what he does." In other words, there should be no need for drudging work, only work which gives someone pleasure in his/her activities.

Illustrated with both pencil drawings and black-and-white photos of paintings and Rodin sculptures.
There is a similar book, titled Art: Conversations With Paul Gsell, which may in fact be identical.

Available on Project Gutenberg and read in the english translation.

[nAeEMak نعیمک]

مصاحبه‌های قدیمی یک ویژگی داشتند و آن این بود که توصیف صحنه و حال‌وهوای مصاحبه را هم داشتند. یعنی نویسنده در این کتاب یک وصف حالی از کارگاه و منزل رودن یا حتی حال خود رودن هم گفته است؛ برعکس مصاحبه‌های امروزی که یک چیز خشک و بی‌حال است. کتاب از چند فصل تشکیل شده که گسل هر بار ملاقاتی با رودن داشته و هر بار دربارۀ موضوعی حرفشان گل انداخته. نکته‌های خیلی زیاد در کتاب است که آدم را شگفت‌زده می‌کند. از دقت رودن در پیکره یا مقایسه‌ای که با شکل‌های مختلف هنر می‌کند، و به عنوان یک مخاطب امروزی خیلی بیشتر مشخص می‌شود که چرا یک هنرمندان قدیمی بسیار چیره‌دست‌تر بودند؛ نه لزوماً در ساخت بلکه چیره‌دست در چیزی که می‌خواستند از ذهنشان تبدیل به اثری امروزی کنند. چیزی که تقریباً در هنر مدرن از دست رفت و یک هم‌شکلی و بی‌شکلی پیش آمد که هر کاری تبدیل به هنر می‌شود. رودن خیلی سفت‌وسخت روی اصولی که داشته تاکید می‌کند با اینکه حتی گاهی گسل بهش می‌گوید از اصولش تخطی کرده است.
مهم‌تر از همه برای من بهش یادآوری کرد که چرا خواندن از هنر می‌تواند به درک بهتر یک اثر کمک کند. چیزی که باز در هنر امروزی از دست رفته و «برداشت» مخاطب باعث شد که هر چیزی بگوییم درست باشد و حتی نقد را هم از دست بدهیم. خواندن توضیحات رودن روی هر اثر و تماشای آن اثر برایم شگفت‌انگیز بود و یادآوری کرد که چرا هنر چیزی بسیار مغتنم و فوق‌العاده‌ای است. واقعاً اگر تنبلی نکنم دوباره باید سراغ خواندن کتاب‌های هنری تئوری بروم و فقط پشت هم اثر نبینم.

[Bryan Worra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even if one doesn't agree with all of Rodin's conclusions, or the arc and course of his personal life, His passion, the intensity of his perspective and feelings regarding his process cannot be denied.

Rodin on Art and Artists is filled with engaging ideas that are useful for artists in any field. It encourages an understanding of our craft and what we might all work towards, and the conversational tone of the text lifts it above the soporific language of most books on art, even those written recently.

[Justin Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

Author Paul Gsell shares a number of interviews and time spent with sculptor Auguste Rodin. I enjoyed sharing in Gsell's progress of getting to know Rodin better, and eventually diving into the mind of this renowned artist. Anybody with an artistic inclination, even outside of sculpting, will find this book inspiring.
The translation seems to be applaudable as well.

[Luiza Siconha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really nice. I had no particular expectations regarding this book, but it actually suprised me. It talks about art not in technic terms as some can think at first, but in general and in a really romantic/ludic way. It is a really soft reading and it can in many parts change some idea that one could have about art.

[Anna Mosca · Rating 5 out of 5]

As I loathe gossip and assumptions, especially in the literature about the Arts, I love books where the subject speaks for himself. This comes from the Rodin-Gsell dialogues on art, through correspondence . A tiny- meaty book. Wonderful!

[Hillary · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read this book in two days. I was more confused as this was written by. Was it Rodin or by Paul Gsell? Yeah, I kind more or less understand him better as an artist, but I ask my self , what did I just read?

[Jeff Youngstrom]

My review from April 28, 1997

[Mary Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful and inspiring book. One I will go back to again and again.

[Pontep​ Lueang-on​ · Rating 5 out of 5]

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