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www.maclarenart.com
For more information:
Rebbeca Truax
Communications Coordinator
Rebbeca@maclarenart.com
Uncrating the MacLaren Plasters, End of March 2001
Plaster fragments: Age of Bronze, St. John the Baptist |
MACLAREN ART CENTRE/
ART CITY, BARRIE, ONTARIO
MacLaren Art Cente
37 Mulcaster Street
Barrie, ON Canada L4M 3M2
(North of Toronto)
Tel. 001 - 705 - 721 96 96
Fax 001 - 705 - 739 13 91
As reported by ArtBusiness
and ArtFocus,
100 Rodin plasters were donated to this Museum in the little town of
Barrie, north of Toronto, Ontario.
A collection of 21 bronzes and 21 original plasters have been donated in
April 2001. When the donation process is complete the collection will
include another 29 bronzes and 29 plasters. In sum, the donation is
claimed to be worth Cdn$ 40 Million. A full size version of the Thinker(1903)
is valued at Cdn$ 1.6 Million.
The works have been exhibited at the Royal Ontario Museum from Fall 2001
till Spring 2002. This exhibition caused a bitter controversy between
the Canadian Museums and the Musée Rodin in Paris, which claimed the
plasters - coming from the settlement of the Rudier Foundry - would be
foundry duplicates, damaged and mollified by replication processes.
Most of the bronzes in the collection were cast in 1999-2000 and will be
part of the ArtCity project. ArtCity is an initiative of the MacLaren
and the City of Barrie to promote cultural tourism by placing art in
parkland and public spaces, so that the whole town becomes a City of
Art. The MacLaren is also looking into building a separate pavillion to
house the plasters and some of the smaller bronzes.
The Museum Website informs us that prior to MacLaren's acquisition, only
one plaster and less than thirty bronze and marble sculptures by Rodin
were known to be open to public view across Canada.
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