Rodin at the High = French Wissing in the USA

To wis is to know, and visitors to Atlanta's High Museum of Art may enjoy getting to know French sculptor Auguste Rodin through the fresh exhibition of 70 works in "Rodin in the United States: Confronting the Modern" on view through Jan. 15. 

When a banner for the exhibition recently went up locally, lyrics to Debbie Harry's seldom-heard passionate smooching song played in my head and inspired the rhyming headline to this post. 

In anticipation of the recent exhibition media preview, I dusted off memories of my first Rodin encounters, both in 1996, also at the High. 

Visiting the museum a week after moving to Georgia, the artist's solemn work "The Shade" -- the centerpiece of a memorial to 106 Atlantans lost in the Orly air disaster of 60 years ago -- greeted me on the approach to Richard Meier's award-winning building on Peachtree Street.

Later that year, of course, the exhibition "Rings: Five Passions in World Art" (photo below) was a cornerstone of the Cultural Olympiad in which Rodin's six-foot marble masterpiece "The Kiss" was a showstopping loan from the Rodin Museum in Paris. 

The new exhibition also features "The Kiss" though this time in bronze borrowed from the Baltimore Museum of Art, where I previously enjoyed this version during a New Jersey to Georgia road trip pit stop of summer 2018 (yes, I brake/break for museums). 

Here are five other Rodin works that caught my eye now on view at the High:

The marble "Christ and Mary Magdalene" -- for which Rodin supervised carving rather than himself chiseling, according to the exhibition wall text -- bookends silky smooth lines of the Biblical characters with rough, unfinished stone pockmarked by somewhat symmetrical knife-poked divots. Taking inspiration from the themes of Slow Art Day, I spent nearly 10 quiet minutes studying this work from all sides and it is extraordinary. This work is loaned by another Meier-designed masterpiece museum, The Getty in Los Angeles. 

"Female Torso with a Slavic Woman's Head" (photo below), which I vaguely recalled from an early 2000s Rodin exhibition at its Legion of Honor home in San Francisco, is an armless plaster figure whose downward gaze perhaps inspired Quintin Tarantino's French-Japanese character Sophie Fatale. As some may recall, she was the interpreter rolled down the snowy hill to a Tokyo emergency room in "Kill Bill: Vol. 1." But what woman will you see and be inspired to revisit via Rodin's work?

Speaking of Japan, for the drawing "Hanako" Rodin sketched his only Japanese model, a touring actress named Hisa Ota (or is it Ota Hisa?). I loved viewing the pen and ink later colored with crayon. While writing this post, a more detailed back story of the actress' intro to Rodin came to light via this site and their eventual artist:spouse:model collaboration is fascinating. 

According to wall texts, "The Prodigal Son" bronze (photo below) was cast for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco. This was another Legion of Honor work seen previously and it proved as moving now as ever. 

If this exhibition's iconic showpiece is "The Thinker" then its feminine counterpart conversation starter may be "Iris, Messenger of the Gods" on holiday from the Smithsonian/Hirshhorn Museum in D.C. Rodin left little to the imagination rendering the bronze "unexhibitable" for prudish American museums. The model was definitely more provocateur less demure.

The exhibition also includes an informative timeline for Rodin's career highs and lows, mistresses and marriage. 

I asked the guest curator, Antoinette Le Normand-Romain, the extent to which "The Kiss" loan of 1996 or the forthcoming Paris 2024 Cultural Olympiad were on her radar ("non" is her paraphrased response). 

She does have great expertise and information about Rodin to share, which may be viewed on YouTube via her summer presentation at the Clark Institute when the exhibition opened there. 

Photos by Nicholas Wolaver except the cover image of "Rings: Five Passions in World Art" catalog cover photo by Bruno Jaret. 

Tommie Smith's Life and Olympic Feats Get Graphic Novel Treatment in Page-Turner "Victory. Stand!"

On Oct.16, 1968, in Mexico City, three Olympians became global icons. 

In the decades since, the medals won by Team USA's Tommie Smith and John Carlos, with Australia's Peter Norman -- and their actions during the ceremony while officials hoisted the "The Star-Spangled Banner" -- were revisited and replayed countless times through film, broadcast specials, print media and, eventually, online. 

Now for the first time, Smith's life and gold medal feat have gotten a graphic novel treatment on the pages of "Victory. Stand! Raising My Fist for Justice" co-created with best-selling author Derrick Barnes and award-winning comic artist Dawud Anyabwile. 

Just days following its Sept. 27 release, the book earned a contender spot as finalist for the 2022 National Book Award for young people's literature, with other accolades via The New York Times Book Review and Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Much like Smith's on-track surge to set a 200m world record, "Victory. Stand!" and its compelling messages are likely to capture gold. 

The 208-page glossy volume opens at the starting blocks of the Olympic track but quickly pivots to Smith's hardscrabble childhood with 11 siblings in rural Texas. 

Readers learn Smith's memories of stern and faithful parents, who eventually relocated the family to California as part of the Great Migration. Through the first two chapters (about 100 pages) the narrative toggles from youthful observations back to the on-track action, relating childhood milestones as context for Mexico City's play-by-play. 

At a book signing event in an activities room of Atlanta's historic Ebenezer Baptist Church last week, about 50 attendees listened as Anyabwile, Barnes and Smith share details of their creative process, which commenced in 2018, in step with a High Museum of Art exhibition honoring 50 years since Mexico City. 

Barnes, who previously wrote over 10 youth books including "The King of Kindergarten" and "Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut," described Smith's "excited conversations like an uncle telling a great story" at Smith's home, later inspiring Barnes to engage an illustrator selection process. 

Anyabwile was a natural No. 1 choice given his Cartoon Network and other Turner Studios accolades as well as previous artistic expertise on another Olympian-centric graphic novel in 2020, "Becoming Muhammad Ali." 

Both the illustrator and writer said they grew up with photos or posters of Smith as "a fixture without context" and the collaboration "added context to [Smith's] family life and upbringing."

During the signing portion of last week's event, I asked Anyabwile the most challenging aspect of the project to illustrate, and he turned to Chapter Two's double truck opener portraying horrors of racism from hooded KKK members with torches igniting a cross to a lynched father, an indication this book for young readers does not sugarcoat the many struggles for Blacks before, during and since the Civil Rights Movement. Should this book include a "parental guidance" suggestion, I wondered, as several pages portray adult decisions. 

But part of the point to the book, Barnes stated, is to inspire family conversations. And "Victory. Stand!" does encourage thoughtful discussion of history, racism, faith, focus and when, where and how to take a meaningful stand for what's right. 

Later study of Anyabwile's beautiful images also yielded a full-page celebration of Queta Basilio, the Team Mexico Olympic hurdler chosen as the first woman to ignite the Olympic cauldron. Other Olympians including Bob Beamon and LeBron James also enjoy Anyabwile's excellent artistry, which he explained is drawn electronically. 

For this blogger the most compelling section of "Victory. Stand!" is Chapter Three's "Metamorphosis" of Smith from small town athlete to Olympic and world record contender while studying at San Jose State University. Though I met Smith hours after his 2016 White House visit and later interviewed him at the High, later watching documentaries or reading more about his silent protest, these previous interactions did not fill in the blanks as to his becoming Tommie Smith. 

Reading "Victory. Stand!" also added context to the Olympic Project for Human Rights of which Smith was a key participant. The book draws attention to the International Olympic Committee's hardline stance against protests and comes full circle with contemporary athlete protests inspired by Smith's stand. 

Unavoidable-for-me Nick-, er, nitpicking, did yield minor errors I think occurred only by accident in the illustration process, or via honest copy editor mistakes. One page highlighting the 1968 Olympic Trials includes the jumbo screen installed at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in 1984 but no Olympic cauldron of 1932, the latter perhaps omitted for the scene to fit the page. 

Also, Basilio's torch and cauldron moment have no flames, and the medal stand on which Smith and Carlos raised their gloved fists is drawn with erroneous Olympic rings that are "smushed" or "crowded" horizontally linking what would be blue-black-red and/or yellow-green rows. The rings appear correctly in other two- or three-dimensional images throughout the book.

Readers will likely savor the variety of comic techniques from intricately drawn "ink" splatters to fine lines and detailed Ben Day dots. I am eager to read other works by the trio of authors. 

As the audience Q&A wrapped, I asked Smith when he thought a turning point occurred in the public's perception of his human rights salute. His response did not acknowledge a specific time nor date range, but he said that at the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee's recently installed leadership "women turned it" and from his vantage the IOC still has not. 

"Still battling. A continual battle," Smith said. 

Image credits: Book cover via W.W. Norton & Co. Other images by Dawud Anyabwile inside "Victory. Stand!" Book event photos by Nicholas Wolaver except the group photo below snapped, with Wolaver's thanks, by Delois Jordan Smith.

Netflix Scores w/Olympic Doc "The Redeem Team"

Telling it like it is: this blogger has very little interest in the NBA. 

Curiosity in this area is consistently so low, I was oblivious to the 2008 Olympic basketball competition and its professional players for its entire two-year lead up to Beijing, the Games that inspired launch of this site.

Not once in China -- nor during three Olympiads and two years since -- has the five-ringed hoops competition of Beijing crossed my mind until this weekend while reading the Oct. 6 New York Times review of the new documentary "The Redeem Team" now streaming on Netflix. 

Screening the film -- combined with recent enjoyment of HBO's excellent drama-comedy series "Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty" -- might have finally sparked more curiosity about the NBA and its reach within the International Basketball Federation (FIBA). I definitely have a lot to learn.

Like the next person,1992's Dream Team did pique my interest, as did the '96 version, though most Atlanta team members came to my attention only through attending the unveiling of an oil painting by Bart Forbes held in a Buckhead gallery (now a Men's Wearhouse) a few weeks before the Games. 

Since that event, I've paid money only once or twice to see star players, specifically a "retiring" Michael Jordan in the late '90s, and a couple of stars from the OKC Thunder in town just after Rio 2016. And though it was personally thrilling to work with the Atlanta Hawks through PR client Philips Arena from 1999 to 2002, and exciting to stand courtside during LA's Olympic bid press events at Staples Center in 2017, professional hoops just haven't captivated me. 

Around town in Atlanta, it's fun to spot Charles Barkley dining at Nan, pass the Dominique Wilkins sculpture downtown, or read about Magic Johnson's or Shaquille O'Neal's business interests in town. Lots of Midtown residents remain eager for Shaq to fulfill his promise to rebuild the popular Ponce Krispy Kreme he owns, which was gutted by fire 18 months ago. 

Each of these NBA touch points were dusted off as "The Redeem Team" got rolling with its streaming recap of Team USA's historic dominance of Olympic basketball shut down at Athens 2004, where an unprepared assemblage of U.S. players lost a playoff round to the ultimate gold medalists from Argentina. 

Viewers learn of "Coach K" Mike Krzyzewski's recruitment to rebuild Team USA starting in 2006, as well as the public perceptions and private personas of most of the stars who signed on for the Road to Beijing, with first-time Olympian Kobe Bryant joining returning Athens 2004 Bronze Medalists LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, Carmelo Anthony and Carlos Boozer on the quest. 

Things sort of plod along during two years of prep, but filmmaker Jon Weinbach's team does a masterful job translating tensions of the court for viewers of the doc. Consider this writer now eager to view this director's treatment of previous Olympic matters via "The Nagano Tapes" or "The Other Dream Team" populating Weinbach's IMDB profile. 

I enjoyed the last 20-30 minutes of "The Redeem Team" for the crescendo of drama it delivers. Bryant's on-court action and pre- and post-Games interview footage really drew me in and helped me "get it" how much he evolved as a player and person before his tragic death. 

Munich '72 Olympian Doug Collins' visit to the team -- to share his vantage as a would-be-gold medalist robbed by history -- juxtaposed with Coach K inviting wounded or blinded soldiers as another teambuilding action, poignantly hammered home one of the bottom lines for the 2008 U.S. squad: You had better not f*ck this up, not so much because gold is on the line, but because untold millions of patriotic fans are drawing inspiration from the team factor above any individual glory for its players. 

One of the journalists tapped for commentary eventually states of "The Redeem Team" players that, "... they're the biggest, greatest team arguably in the history of the Olympics." For some viewers this may ring true. 

For all of this film's strengths, it did not establish for this viewer enough inspiration to earn GOAT status. Not even close. 

This is no scrappy "Miracle" team of Lake Placid nor Soviet gold medal basketball team of 1972 (for better or worse, "the greatest" hoop dreamers for some Olympic fans on the other side of the world). I won't be alone in thinking of other top teams that rallied at the Games -- off the top of my head, how about the "Magnificent Seven" gymnasts, the 1996 and 2000 women's soccer teams and/or the undefeated-since-1996 U.S. women's basketball teams?

The NBA-infused 2008 team's only "Goliath" was overcoming self and pride for the sake of the team, which they did admirably. Watching this team get their act together is a fun ride. 

Image credits: Coach K in Beijing via UPI; '96 team painting by Bart Forbes, Redeem Team photo w/Statue of Liberty via USA Basketball, "The Redeem Team" promo still via Netflix and IMDB.