Rodin & Dance: The Essence of Movement is the first serious study of Rodin's late sculptural series known as the Dance Movements. Exploring the artist's fascination with dance and bodies in extreme acrobatic poses, the exhibition and accompanying catalogue give an account of Rodin's passion for new forms of dance - from south-asian dances to the music hall and the avant garde - which began appearing on the French stage around 1900. Rodin made hundreds of drawings and watercolours of dancers. From about 1911 he also gave sculptural expression to this fascination with dancers' bodies and movements in creating the Dance Movements, a series of small clay figure studies (each approx. 30 cm in height) that stretch and twist in unsettling ways. These leaping, turning figures in terracotta and plaster were found in the artist's studio after his death and were not exhibited during Rodin's lifetime or known beyond his close circle. Presented alongside the associated drawings and photographs of some of the dancers, they show a new side to Rodin's art, in which he pushed the boundaries of sculpture, expressing themes of flight and gravity. This exhibition catalogue aims to become the authoritative reference for Rodin's Dance Movements, comprising essays from leading scholars in the field of sculpture. It includes an introductory essay on the history of the bronze casting of the Dance Movements and the critical fortune of the series, an essay on the dancers Rodin admired, and an extensive technical essay. The Catalogue will comprise detailed entries on the works in the exhibition and new technical information on the drawings. Contributors include Alexandra Gerstein, Curator of Sculpture and Decorative Arts, The Courtauld Institute of Art; Antoinette Le Normand-Romain, Director, Institut National d'Histoire de l'Art, Paris; Juliet Bellow, Associate Professor of Art History, American University in Washington, DC and currently Resident Fellow, the Center for Ballet and the Arts, New York University; Francois Blanchetiere, Curator of Sculpture at the Musee Rodin; Agnes Cascio and Juliette Levy, distinguished sculpture conservators; Sophie Biass-Fabiani, Curator of Works on Paper at the Musee Rodin; and Kate Edmonson, Conservator of Works on Paper at The Courtauld Gallery.

Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) was a radical sculptor whose unorthodox approach to sculpture-making provided a definitive break in the history of Western sculpture. Although much of his commercial success was based on the bronze and marble versions of his work, Rodin's greatest talent was as a modeller who captured movement, emotion, light and volume in clay and plaster, to challenge traditional conceptions of beauty and perfection. In line with new thinking on Rodin, this book explores the artist's use of plaster, a material which demonstrates his interest in creating sculptures that are never completed, always becoming. United by their materiality, fragile and experimental pieces are explored alongside new readings of some of Rodin's iconic works, and a selection of his watercolour drawings. Including an exclusive contribution from sculptor Phyllida Barlow, The Making of Rodin sheds light on the artist's use of materials, his unique way of working, and his imaginative use of photography, revealing how Rodin reinvented sculpture for the modern age - and why his work continues to enthral and provoke to this day.