Sculptor, photographer, and master of artistic staging; rival to Auguste Rodin; and a role model for numerous artists—around 1900, Medardo Rosso (1858-1928) revolutionized sculpture. Although exceptionally influential, the Italian-French artist remains too little-known today. “Medardo Rosso: Inventing Modern Sculpture” aims to change this. Featuring around 50 of his sculptures and 250 photographs and drawings—many of which have rarely been seen outside of Italy in the past several decades—the exhibition at the Kunstmuseum Basel | Neubau offers a rare opportunity to discover Rosso’s oeuvre in a comprehensive retrospective. It invites the audience to learn more about his pioneering activities in turn-of-the-century Milan and Paris as well as the significance of his art from a contemporary perspective, while at the same time providing the basis for a new investigation of the history of modern sculpture.
The exhibition helps visitors understand Rosso’s radical explorations of form (and its undoing), material, and technique across media. The extraordinary and lasting impact of his œuvre is revealed by encounters with works by over 60 artists from the past 100 years, including Lynda Benglis, Constantin Brâncuși, Edgar Degas, David Hammons, Eva Hesse, Meret Oppenheim, Auguste Rodin, and Alina Szapocznikow.
In keeping with the principle of comparative vision espoused by the artist himself, the exhibition presents his works in “conversation” with more than 60 historic and contemporary photographs, paintings, sculptures, and videos. The exhibition begins in the Kunstmuseum Basel Hauptbau’s courtyard, where Rodin’s Burghers of Calais (1884–1889) will come face to face with a work by Pamela Rosenkranz. From the Hauptbau, visitors proceed through the underground concourse and past an expansive work by Kaari Upson to the Neubau, where a monographic presentation of Rosso’s art is on view on the ground floor. The exhibition continues on the second floor with the juxtapositions with works by other artists.
There will be a public opening of this exhibit on March 28 from 18:30-21:00; admission to this event is free.

Website
kunstmuseumbasel.ch/en/exhibitions/2025/medardo-rosso

Where
Kunstmuseum Basel
St. Alban-Graben 16
4051 Basel

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