Within the framework of the exhibition, Picasso the Sculptor. Matter and Body, this seminar offers a journey through the genealogy of 20th century sculpture, from its ancient sources to the present day. Picasso’s sculpture, the impact of Rodin’s work and ancient statuary on the work of modern artists and contemporary public sculpture will be some of the issues to be debated by the curator of the exhibition and first director of the MPM, Carmen Giménez, the curator Astrid Nielsen and the experts Jonathan Vernon and Marianne Wagner, together with the artistic director of the MPM, José Lebrero Stals.

In the early twentieth century, classic statuary ceased to be the exclusive reference for European sculptors. They learned how to appreciate new artistic, formal, and conceptual possibilities in other cultures considered primitive at the time. The development of this new sensibility came with the massive call to the front in the First World War, which coincided with the death of Gustave Rodin in 1917. These factors prompted a shift in the aesthetics of sculpture. Forgetting Rodin—oublier Rodin, as it was known among the artists of that period—was a radical reaction to his way of envisioning sculpture.

However, the revolution in modern sculpture was brought about, not by conventional sculptors but by painters. Once the nineteenth century finished, it started years of experimenting with new languages and meanings. Gauguin, Matisse, and, of course, Pablo Picasso, among many others, liberated from the academy, felt capable of dictating the rules of the new sculpture in real time. Subsequent generations of artists took the baton from those pioneers in modern sculpture, putting into practice alternative ways of formalising the artistic object until arriving at sculpture as we know it today, a conceptually and formally expanded field in which the ambition to “give physical life” to the human spirit does not seem to keep much attention.

This seminar, which is free of charge, can be attended online or in person, after registering by clicking here.

Programme

TUESDAY, MAY 9

6:00 p.m. Presentation
José Lebrero Stals. Artistic director, Museo Picasso Málaga

6:15 p.m. Dialogue: Picasso sculptor. Matter and body
Carmen Giménez. Curator of the exhibition
José Lebrero Stals. Artistic director, Museo Picasso Málaga

7:00 p.m. Ancient Statuary and Modern Sculpture
Astrid Nielsen. Curator, Albertinum, Skulpturensammlung, Dresden

7:45 p.m. Round table: Picasso and Modern Sculpture
Carmen Giménez, Astrid Nielsen and José Lebrero Stals

WEDNESDAY, MAY 10

6:00 p.m. Rodin and the Retelling of Modern Sculpture
Jonathan Vernon. Associate Lecturer, The Courtauld Institute of Art, London

6:45 p.m. Public, Invisible and Materiality: Contemporary Sculptural Practice
Dr. Marianne Wagner. Jefa de Skulptur Projekte Archives, Münster

7:30 p.m. Round table: What is Sculpture Today?
Jonathan Vernon, Marianne Wagner and José Lebrero Stals