Medardo Rosso

Artist and artisan, art theorist and proto-installation artist, master of high-publicity performances and rival of Auguste Rodin, Medardo Rosso (b. 1858 in Turin, d. 1928 in Milan) was one of the great pioneers of modernism. mumok is dedicating a comprehensive retrospective to the Italian-French artist’s still little-known oeuvre, which will feature about fifty sculptures and a large selection of photographs, photocollages, and drawings. The exhibition delves into a thorough analysis of Rosso's processual and repetitive and radical anti-heroic approach, with which the artist defied all conventions of traditional sculpture. A selection of works by artists directly or indirectly influenced by Rosso — such as Francis Bacon, Nairy Baghramian, Phyllida Barlow, Lynda Benglis, Louise Bourgeois, Constantin Brâncuși, Edgar Degas, Alberto Giacometti, David Hammons, Eva Hesse, Marisa Merz, Robert Morris and Andy Warhol — further unpack and create a dialogue with Rosso’s equally groundbreaking and hermetic work. The “expanded” retrospective thus adheres to Rosso’s own artistic practice of not exhibiting alone but in “conversation” with others.
 

The exhibition, which is being organized in close collaboration with the Medardo Rosso Estate, will subsequently travel to Kunstmuseum Basel, where it will be on view from March to August 2025.

Exhibition design: Florian Pumhösl and Walter Kräutler

Artists in dialogue with Medardo Rosso 

Giovanni Anselmo / Guillaume Apollinaire / Francis Bacon / Nairy Baghramian / Olga Balema / Phyllida Barlow / Lynda Benglis / Louise Bourgeois / Anton Giulio Bragaglia / Constantin Brâncuși / Eugène Carrière / John Chamberlain / Honoré Daumier / Edgar Degas / Raymond Duchamp-Villon / Luciano Fabro / Loïe Fuller / Isa Genzken / Alberto Giacometti / Robert Gober / David Hammons / Eva Hesse / Jasper Johns / Hans Josephsohn / Ellsworth Kelly / Käthe Kollwitz / Yayoi Kusama / Maria Lassnig / Sherrie Levine / Matthijs Maris / Marisa Merz / Amedeo Modigliani / Robert Morris / Juan Muñoz / Senga Nengudi / Carol Rama / Auguste Rodin / Richard Serra / Georges Seurat / Erin Shirreff / Edward Steichen / Alina Szapocznikow / Paul Thek / Rosemarie Trockel / Hannah Villiger / Andy Warhol / Rebecca Warren / James Welling / Francesca Woodman