Author(s): Gökcen ERGÜR, Caner ÇOBAN
Medardo Rosso, among the artists who had dominated the sculpture at twenthieth century has a different position. Rosso, being mentioned among the pioneer artists like Rodin, Degas, Mailol, is an artist who had influenced the future artists. Medardo Rosso was born in 1858 in Turin Italy. He was the youngest of three in a middle-class family. His father was a station chief. His mother who was doted on Medardo and was very closed to him in comparison with the other members of the family. The family had moved to Milan in 1870, when Medardo was twelve. In that period, Italy had been going through a political solidarity process. Medardo’s education life wasn’t so good. He had bee frequently skipping the school and going to a neighbouring stone master’s place. When he was twenty one, he joined the army instead of his oldest brother. In the late 1881 he had set up a workshop in Milan and started sculpturing. He had applied to Brera Fine Arts Academie for having knowledge about drawing and anatomy. He had been accepted for just those classes. However he had been disappointed because the duration of anatomy class including live model and cadaver study. A petition for the problem had been given and during that process he had been involved in two fights and the school management had decided to dismiss him. He had concentrated on his workshop, sculpturing and exhibition. On the other hand he had tried to lived on by sculpture orders. For that matter Rosso has tomb sculptures in Milan in different cemeteries. Rosso had used his style and artistic ideas in his workshop. His works had been influenced by the romantic and impressionist artists and critics of that period. Particularly Baudelaire. The works had been sculptered through a glimpse and from a single vantage point. He had been faithful to that idea through all his career and meanwhile he had made experiments on material. He had developed a technic apart from bronze founding which is identified with him. This technic includes wax coating over plaster model. In 1884 Medardo Rosso had been in Paris -the capital of art- for a couple of months. Besides the exhibitions he had seen, he had assisted to Jules Dalou’s workshop and he had the opportunity to meet Rodin. At the end of the same year he had been back to Milan and also he had lost his dear mother. His depression had affected his works. After a couple of months he had suddenly married with Guiditta Pozzi and had a son named Francesco. After a while in Milan he had left his family behind and gone to Paris and continued his works there. He had worked independently in a very active artistic atmosphere. According to the artistic criterion of the period he had tried to exhibit his fringe works and to explain his artistic ideas. He had aroused interest of the notables of the artistic society like Henri Rouart and Degas. Meanwhile his working and living conditions had affected his health. He had had to be hospitalised. That period was his maturity. His wax coating statues had started to draw attention. In 1893 in sophisticated place of the intellectuals the Bodiere theatre, he had exhibited his works and made friends with Rodin. In 1898 this friendship had turned into hostility because of Rodin’s presentation of Balzac statue. Rosso, had accused the artist with plagiarism. After a while he had been supported by the art society the problem hadn’t been clarified. Rodin hadn’t accepted the accusations. After all these thing Rosso had stopped all his creative works. With the guidance of Etha Fle an artist and a critic with whom he had met in 1900, Rosso had dedicated himself to make a name. He had made exhibitions in Germany, Austria and England and reproduced his formal works. He had continued to participate the exhibitions till 1928 the year he had died. Besides the interpretation to the matters like forming, material relevances and composition, he also varies from the others with his fundamentalist attitude against the art tradition. He had remained on the agenda when was alive and after his death. Many researches had been made and articles had been written about him. For instance in 1963 an extensive exhibition had been opened in MOMA and attendantly a monography written by Margaret Scolari Barr been published. In this article many references were made to that monograph. Today the attention for Rosso is still alive and many detailed researches are still being made about the artist.
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