Take an independent, idealistic artist; add an organization that promotes traveling exhibitions of the work of one of France's most well-known artists; throw in a will, some bronze and several plaster molds.
Mix 'em all up and what do you have?
A raging debate.
When Ball State's Museum of Art reopens Sunday, its main exhibit - "Rodin's Obsession: The Gates of Hell, Selections from the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Collection" - will be the source of at least one such problem. Reason is, said Florida-based artist Gary Arseneau, 23 of the 30 Rodin sculptures on display at the exhibit are "second-generation fakes."
"Normally you would find an art exhibit of this stature at a furniture store," Arseneau said.
AT ISSUE
Arseneau's comments stem from a belief that although Rodin - a French sculptor who died in 1917 after spending nearly two-thirds of his life working on "The Gates of Hell" - gave the French government permission to reproduce several of his sculptures posthumously the artist did not grant anyone permission to make copies, or "molds," of his original work and cast them.
Arseneau said that since 23 of the 30 sculptures featured in the exhibit at Ball State were cast after Rodin's death, and are not his original works, they are therefore "second-generation" and are not worthy of appearing in a museum.
Alain Joyaux, director of Ball State's Museum of Art, scoffed at Arseneau's claims. Although Joyaux admitted that the sculptures in the exhibit were cast from copies of Rodin's original work, he said that doesn't make them any less authentic than an original.
"It's like a photographer giving the rights to their child ... to reprint certain negatives up to a certain number," Joyaux said. "(Sculpture) is an art form based on the concept of multiples."
Although it may seem trivial to people outside of the artistic community, Arseneau said, questioning the legitimacy of this traveling exhibit has sparked controversy in a community that he feels is becoming too profit-driven. Thus, the artist has launched a nationwide campaign to try to discredit the exhibit, which he said has been "blindly accepted" by museum curators and art historians.
Since some of the hundreds of museums that have displayed posthumous Rodin sculptures charge admission, Arseneau said he feels as if this acceptance is profit-driven.
"If you take an object that the artist never approved of and launder it through museums, it gains a sense of authenticity," he said. "They go in as second-generation fakes and come out as Rodin bronze sculptures.
"This is not about art. This is about making money."
The Los Angeles-based Cantor Foundation, which organizes traveling Rodin exhibitions that have appeared in more than 150 venues, supports the legitimacy of the sculptures because they have been recognized as "authentic" by art historians.
"The issue of posthumous casts is a dramatic one for the uninitiated," said Executive Director Judith Sobol. "Because Rodin clearly authorized such casts ... (they) are considered by recognized art historians to be authentic."
A FOUR-YEAR OBSESSION
Arseneau became interested in the Rodin exhibit when it appeared in Jacksonville, Fla., in 1998. He noticed the exhibit's promotional material listed some dates he viewed as suspect, he began a dialogue with Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens curator Robert Torchia. In April of 1999, the Florida Times-Union reported that three days after Torchia wrote a letter to Arseneau apparently agreeing with Arseneau about the authenticity of the exhibit, the curator was fired.
Since then, Arseneau has spent much of his free time managing a negative public-relations campaign against the exhibit. As a result, his name has appeared in newspapers following the exhibit across the country - to the extent that one could trace the movement of the Cantor Foundation's exhibit from one location to the next by typing in Arseneau's name in a Web-based search engine -, and Arseneaux said he's determined to force the issue even though he's been lambasted by members of the art community since he first started questioning the exhibit's legitimacy in late 1998.
The campaign has become part of his identity.
So much so that he's written two books on the subject. So much so that when people enter Gary Arseneau's art gallery in Fernandina Beach, Fla., he usually greets them by advising that "the art is all real and I was alive when I did it."
Arseneau admits he is a purist - dedicated to preserving artist integrity in an age where, according to him, people are too afraid to question prominent members of the art community.
"I'm the kind of person who can (challenge the exhibit) ... I have an independent gallery."
Arseneau said if his claims are so out-of-line the Cantor Foundation would have taken "legitimate" action to silence him long ago by simply suing him.
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