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# Medardo Rosso at the Kunstmuseum Basel: The Invention of Modern Sculpture
From March 29th to August 10th, 2025, the Kunstmuseum Basel presents the most comprehensive retrospective dedicated to Medardo Rosso (1858–1928), one of the most enigmatic and innovative figures in modern sculpture. Titled 'Medardo Rosso. The Invention of Modern Sculpture', the exhibition brings together around 50 sculptures and more than 250 photographs and drawings, offering the public a rare opportunity to immerse themselves in the aesthetic and conceptual world of an artist who challenged the boundaries between form and ephemerality, figure and abstraction. LEFT: Medardo Rosso, artist, Modern print from the original glass negative, 17.9 x 13 cm, Private collection Photo credit: mumok / Markus Wörgötter; RIGHT: Medardo Rosso, 1895, Plaster, 17.5 x 20 x 19.3 cm, Museo Medardo Rosso, Barzio. Photo credit: mumok / Markus Wörgötter Curatorship Organized in collaboration with mumok (Museum of Modern Art, Vienna), the exhibition is the result of years of research and is co-curated by Heike Eipeldauer and Elena Filipovic. The curatorial approach stands out for its transversal analysis of Rosso’s work, combining his sculptures with photographs, drawings, and archival documents, while also placing them in dialogue with artists from different periods, such as Odilon Redon and Edgar Degas. LEFT: La sirène, Odilon Redon, around 1900, Oil and gold powder on fiberboard, 27 x 22 cm, Public domain image data – Kunstmuseum Basel, Stiftung Im Obersteg, on deposit at Kunstmuseum Basel Photo Credit: Martin P. Bühler; RIGHT: Little Dancer Aged Fourteen, Edgar Degas, ca. 1922, Bronze, tulle, 98 x 51 x 51 cm, Sainsbury Centre, University of East Anglia, Sainsbury Centre, UEA / Photo © Pete Huggins The Anti-Monument and Sculpture as Impression Rosso revolutionized sculpture by abandoning classical monumentality in favor of fluidity, instability, and the ephemeral. Using materials such as wax and plaster—traditionally associated with preparatory models—Rosso granted them final and autonomous value, creating works that challenge perception and shift with light and point of view. His figures are fragmented, blurred, often difficult to grasp, as if they hovered between presence and absence. This artistic gesture distances him from the heroic rhetoric of the late 19th century and brings him closer to a poetics of intimacy and vulnerability. LEFT: Malato all'ospedale, Medardo Rosso, 1889, Painted plaster, 23.5 x 30.5 x 28 cm, Museo Medardo Rosso, Barzio. Photo Credit: mumok / Markus Wörgötter; RIGHT: Ecce Puer, Medardo Rosso, After 1920 (cast), 1906 (original model), 1906 (after 1920), Wax over plaster, 47 x 34 x 29 cm, Fabbri Federico. Photo Credit: Courtesy Galleria Russo, Rome Photography as Part of Sculpture Unlike his contemporaries, such as Rodin, who used photography mainly for documentation, Rosso incorporated it into his creative process. He photographed his own sculptures, manipulating light, framing, and perspective to explore how the image could transform matter. In his vision, photography was an extension and a performative act of sculpture itself. LEFT: Les bourgeois de Calais, Auguste Rodin, 1884–1889, cast 1942/43, Bronze; Ex. 7/12, cast by Alexis Rudier: 1942/43, 216.8 x 255.6 x 196.6 cm,1800 kg, Public domain image – Kunstmuseum Basel, Kunstmuseum Basel, acquired with funds from the bequest of Prof. Rudolf Handmann-Horner, the Lottery Fund, private contributions, and the Masterpiece Fund, Photo Credit: Martin P. Bühler; RIGHT: Medardo Rosso in his studio on Boulevard des Batignolles, 1890, print from the original glass negative, 13 × 17.7 cm, © Archivio Medardo Rosso Atomic Dialogues: Brâncuși and Duchamp The exhibition fosters meaningful encounters between Medardo Rosso and artists who, like him, redefined the boundaries of modern sculpture. Constantin Brâncuși, for instance, regarded Rosso as a decisive influence. Although their styles are formally distinct — Brâncuși pursued the extreme purification of form, while Rosso was drawn to the dissolution and fluidity of appearances — both shared a desire to liberate sculpture from monumental rigidity and to capture the essential. For Rosso, this meant revealing the ephemeral and emotional instant; for Brâncuși, it was about reaching a universal spiritual truth. LEFT: Boîte-en-valise, Marcel Duchamp, Basel, Kunstmuseum, Medardo Rosso. The Invention of Modern Sculpture,1949, Series A, no. XIX/XX, with 69 objects and an original template "L'ombre sans cavalier" (graphite and diluted ink on paper) for a stencil print, 10.5 x 38 cm case (lying); depth varies between 41–42 cm, © Association Marcel Duchamp / 2025, ProLitteris, Zurich, Kunstmuseum Basel, gift of Marguerite Arp-Hagenbach. Photo Credit: Max Ehrengruber; RIGHT: Muse endormie II, Constantin Brâncuși, ca. 1925, Polished bronze, 17 x 27 x 17 cm, © Succession Brancusi – All rights reserved / 2025, ProLitteris, Zurich, Kunsthaus Zürich, Heinz Keller Bequest, 1984 The connection with Marcel Duchamp, in turn, highlights Rosso’s pioneering approach to photography, repetition, and mise-en-scène as integral elements of the sculptural gesture. His refusal to fix a work in a definitive state anticipates the logic of Duchamp’s ready-mades and his experiments with chance, irony, and conceptual displacement. Contemporary Resonances: Henry Moore and Kaari Upson Rosso’s influence extended well beyond his own time. His material and spatial approach inspired figures such as Henry Moore, whose sculpture similarly investigates the relationship between void and form. In a more recent context, Kaari Upson, through her corporeal and psychological installations, echoes Rosso’s legacy by exploring sculpture as an unstable organism in constant metamorphosis. LEFT: Working Model for Upright Internal/External Form, Henry Moore, 1951, Bronze, 64 x 22.5 x 22 cm, © 2025, ProLitteris, Zurich, Emanuel Hoffmann Foundation, on deposit at the Öffentliche Kunstsammlung Basel; RIGHT: Eleven, Kaari Upson, 2020, Text: variable dimensions, Kunstmuseum Basel, acquired with funds from the Karl and Margrith Schaub-Tschudin Foundation and the acquisition fund, Photo Credit: Max Ehrengruber Through a sophisticated curatorial approach and a web of historical and aesthetic crossovers, the exhibition at the Kunstmuseum Basel reintroduces Rosso to the pantheon of modernity—not as a supporting figure, but as a true protagonist of contemporary sculpture. LOT-ART SERVICES FOR COLLECTORS NEW! Best Deals: Bid on highly liquid lots with an estimate below the historical sale price. Make smart investment decisions powered by Market Analytics. 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