Rodin on Art (English-Chinese Bilingual Reader)

Author: (French) Auguste Rodin
Publisher:
Publication Date: 2006-02-01
Features: Rodin's thoughts and works share a highly consistent theme: melancholy, distress, sadness, and their struggle against fate. "As for me, the true seeker, the observer of life, I am on guard. I seize the living movement, not by forcing it." He is a "true thinker," filled with romantic and idealistic spirit. He believed that works were not just a collection of materials but must possess "thought and life." He said: A pure masterpiece is such that, whether in form, line, or color, nothing can be found; everything melts into thought and soul. His thoughts reach a height that is difficult for ordinary people to attain. His reflections concern the present and future of all humanity.
Auguste Rodin (1840–1917) was a distinguished French sculptor, regarded as the "third peak in the history of European sculpture after Phidias and Michelangelo." On Art was completed in his later years and reflects his lifelong artistic views and aesthetic philosophy. It is considered a "landmark work that has had a profound impact on modern Western art." Shao Dazhen, in Ten Lectures on Western Modern Sculpture, describes Rodin as an artist who thinks deeply about life and art, and anyone who has read On Art knows this.
This book is regarded as both a "scientific summary of the history of European sculpture" and a "refinement of personal experience." It includes Rodin's admiration for predecessors, outstanding critiques of masterpieces, and self-revelation and introspection. When Fu Lei taught at the Shanghai Art College of Fine Arts, he translated this book as a "textbook on aesthetics" for his students.
The book was dictated by Rodin and recorded by Georges Guillaumet. It is considered an "outstanding textbook on art," "a work of extraordinary value," "a source of inspiration for many creators," and a "master secret manual for the art world." It is divided into eleven chapters, covering topics such as the realism of art, the beauty of everything in nature as seen through the lens of art, the ambiguity of art, movement in art, female beauty, and the thought of art.