This interesting exhibition and publication project was created in cooperation between the Prague City Gallery, the Ethnographic Institute of the Moravian Museum in Brno and the Gallery of Visual Art in Hodonín. And it was there that at the beginning of November, my colleagues and I went to see it as part of professional education. One of the reasons for visiting the Hodonín gallery was also that, unlike the previous ones in Prague and Brno, the exhibition here was enriched by several sculptures both by Rodin himself and by some leading Czech sculptors, led by Josef Mařatka and Ladislav Šaloun. Here, we could admire Rodin's art, for example, from the property of the National Gallery in Prague, Hodonín gallery, and especially the bronze cast of the life-size statue "Metal Age" from the collections of the Prague City Gallery, which was purchased by the city of Prague directly from the exhibition in 1902.

The famous artist came to Bohemia to see the installation of his works, which was then organized by the Society of Fine Artists Mánes, in the Kinsky Garden in the new pavilion, built according to the design of the architect Jan Kotěra, precisely for this very important cultural event. The goal of the Moravian trip was to visit the exhibition of Slovak artists in Hodonín and the studio of Joža Úprka in Hroznová Lhota.

Rodin's brief (May 28 - June 3) stay in Prague and Moravian Slovácko was crucial for the subsequent development of Czech art, and it was documented by rich period photographic material from the archives of the National Gallery in Prague and the Scheufler Collection. The author of most of the photographs was Rudolf Bruner-Dvořák (1864-1921), the founder of Czech journalistic photography, a pioneer of photographic reportage and one of the most important figures in the history of Czech photography.

The exhibition project by the authors and curators Hana Dvořáková, Magdalena Juříková, Helena Musilová, Vít Vlnas and Ilona Tunklová for the Hodonín gallery presents briefly the artist's Prague exhibition through Dvořák's photographs, period artefacts and archives. Above all, it systematically maps the rich social program that was prepared for Rodin. The visitor can follow his journey at that time accompanied by Alfons Mucha, Josef Mařatka, Zdenka Braunerová, Miloš Jiránek, Ladislav Šaloun, Rudolf Vácha and other personalities of the cultural and political scene of the time.

Exhibition dates:

Prague City Gallery: 25 October 2022 – 29 January 2023
Moravian Museum in Brno: 28 March – 3 September 2023
Gallery of Visual Art in Hodonín: 15 September 2023 – 7 January 2024

A publication of the same name was also published for the exhibition in cooperation with the Stará pošta publishing house.

Jana Bojanovská, November 2023