The Cullen Sculpture Garden at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

Artworks: The Advent of Modernism

"Whether we want to or not, we belong to our time and we share in its opinions, its feelings, even its delusions."
Henri Matisse, 1908

The first years of the twentieth century saw a new spirit of critical subjectivity and exploration in the visual arts. Unlike artists of the academic tradition, who had dominated the public arena in the nineteenth century, this generation of painters and sculptors was willing to discard narrative conventions and traditional rules of compositional harmony. Instead they sought to reconnect with nature, to uncover emotional truths, and to distill form to its expressive essence.

Some of the most radical departures in twentieth-century Modernism occurred in sculpture as artists embraced new materials and abstract structures. However, important changes were first introduced in the classic subject of the human figure and the time-honored medium of bronze. By 1900 Auguste Rodin, the most celebrated sculptor of his time, had realized the power of fragmented form, and works such as The Walking Man offer a brilliant introduction to the changes in art and aesthetics at this turning point in history. Émile-Antoine Bourdelle, whose early career was largely shaped by Rodin's example, created his Adam as the embodiment of the fall of man, eloquently expressing tragedy through the simple and vivid lines of the figure.

Artists who came of age after 1900 developed their work in response to Rodin's emotive force. Henri Matisse, who readily acknowledged his debt to Rodin, offered a revolutionary reinterpretation of the figure through his celebrated series Backs I-IV. An ongoing project that spanned more than two decades, the Backs were the first important sculptural works to make clear the temporal nature of the creative process. Matisse's contemporary, Aristide Maillol, as well as the younger Marino Marini, turned to classical antiquity as a fresh source of inspiration. Maillol's Nude Flora evokes the spirit of springtime, young and full of promise. Marini's The Pilgrim, in contrast, captures a more troubled mood of uncertainty and experience.