Camille Claudel: From Grace to Exile
In the wake of the cultural manifesto evolving around Marseille-Provence 2013, the Museum of Ancient Arles will arrange from April to September an exhibition dedicated to the great sculptor August Rodin. Entitled “Rodin, the Light of the Antique”, the display has the ambition of shedding new light upon the master’s works by revealing the influence of the great Antiquity in modern art.
Meanwhile, near the city of Avignon, another exhibition is about to take place. “From Grace to Exile”, is dedicated to Rodin’s former mistress Camille Claudel, as this year celebrates the 70th anniversary of her death.
First confined in a Parisian Psychiatric asylum in 1913, Camille was then transferred to the Montfavet Hospital. She eventually died there thirty years later, at nearly 80. Following her death in 1943, her body was first buried in the hospital’s cemetery and then dumped into a communal grave. Not a single living family member from her family claimed her remains, not even her own brother Paul! Quite naturally, the Hospital of Montfavet now wishes to honor the memory of this extraordinary woman. During her lifetime confinement, she deliberately refused to touch any food that hadn’t been prepared by herself, surviving essentially on eggs and potatoes cooked in ashes, fearing poisoning. Was she truly mad or simply paranoid? In 1906, she did destroy her works in order to prevent Rodin from stealing her carving ideas, as he might have done during their affair. At that time, the lady who had once won the heart of the composer Debussy wandered through the streets of Paris, showing up drunk at her own private viewings. Such attitude greatly shamed her family who signed up her confinement order after her father’s death.
Some of the works shown in the current exhibition are well-known and have already been displayed at the Rodin Museum, where Camille is allowed some comfortable amount of space. These include the “Buste of Paul Claudel at 37” (a later work), “The Waltz” (which inspired various castings), or “Implorer” (one of her leading accomplishments). This masterpiece was wrought during her magnificent creative period which peaked with “The Age of Maturity” around 1895, coinciding with her splitting up from Rodin. The exhibition also features carvings like “Head of a slave”, “Crouching woman” or “Old Helen” (some of her earliest works, which owned her the admiration of both the Master and former professor Alfred Boucher). Some other works shown on display are less renowned, like “Woman with Arms Crossed” or “Blind Singing Head”. In total, no less than a dozen works are to be exhibited, including a sculpture executed by Boucher himself called: “Camille reading”. This will no doubt allow us to dive into the rebellious? – tormented? – world of a great artist cringing for recognition! Amid her creative drive, Camille sped off from the neo-classics and the all-mighty antique influence to create emotionally committed works in which shine the essence of true drama. Indeed, her art expresses emotions tangible beyond the sole physical posture (like love and happiness in the “Sakuntala”, also known as “The Kiss”, or despair in “Implorer”).
Coming along with this exhibition are exclusive sculptures specifically fashioned for the occasion by FIAMPC work groups. This association led by Marie Laurencin believes in psychotherapy through artistic creation, and thus promotes the organization of inventive workshops around its patients. Those works will doubtless join Camille’s main exploration theme regarding “Woman, Madness and Creation”. On April 26, a conference around the various questions Claudel’s life inspires us will be given at the Hospital of Montfavet’s showroom. The same room will later hold a live dancing solo performed by Roberte Léger on Friday the 24th of May at 17:30, and on Saturday the 25th at 20:30. The performance, designed by the choreographer herself, will be based upon the sculptor’s correspondence: “Letters from Camille”. The play “Camille Ad Honores” presented by the Autre Scène theatre on Friday the 31st of May and Saturday the 1st of June at 19:30 shall conclude this rich cultural manifestation.
This vast exhibition dedicated to the person of Camille Claudel will take place at the Arcades Museum (created in 1990) and the Hospital of Montfavet (Avignon): from March the 30th to June the 2nd, 2013. Don’t miss this major experience this spring! After all, Avignon is only an hour away from Marseille…
DVDM
Translation: Q. Richard
To learn more:
Address: Centre hospitalier de Montfavet
2, Avenue de la Pinède
BP 40092 84143
Tel : 04 90 03 90 80
