| The so-called Rodin Chaser has met his match in Calgary.
On September 23, the Glenbow Museum fired off a media advisory entitled "The Curious Fixation of the ‘Rodin Chaser.’" The "chaser" in question is Gary Arseneau, a Florida-based gallery owner and self-proclaimed Rodin expert.
The Glenbow’s advisory read in part, "Since 1999, the ‘Rodin Chaser’ has dogged this acclaimed exhibition in different centres across the United States." The "dogged" part of things amounts to Arseneau firing off e-mails to media outlets to tell them that the sculptures included in Magnificent Obsession are what he considers fakes.
Arseneau’s best-known line is "dead men don’t sculpt," referring to the many Rodin bronzes that have been cast after the artist’s death in 1917. To which Monique Westra, curator of the Glenbow exhibition, responds, "Dead men don’t change their minds, either."
Westra is referring to the indisputable fact that Rodin willed his entire estate to France and gave explicit permission to allow the casting of his works after his death.
The Glenbow’s pre-emptive strike was designed to educate the media about the nature of Arseneau’s "obsession" before he could create any kind of controversy over the exhibition prior to its official launch in Calgary on Saturday, October 30. And it seems to have worked.
Although Arseneau has had little success stirring controversy in Calgary, his enthusiasm for criticizing galleries and museums is not limited to the posthumous casts of Rodin. As recently as last month he was causing a flap in New Jersey after criticizing a gallery for selling posthumous editions of John Lennon lithographs.
The gallery owner responded to an inquiry from news reporter Joan Finn of The Montclair Times by saying, "Arseneau is not an authority. He has no credibility. People jump on this exhibit because it’s John Lennon. Arseneau’s got nothing better to do than to get his name in the paper."
It seems one man’s "obsession" is another man’s press release.
|
Copyright ©2004 FFWD. All rights reserved.