A new exhibition titled “Rodin’s Egypt” opens November 19 at NYU’s Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (ISAW), exploring how ancient Egyptian art influenced Auguste Rodin’s sculptures. Guest curated by Bénédicte Garnier of the Musée Rodin in Paris, the show features 65 objects, including Rodin’s rarely seen assemblages that combine his plaster casts with Egyptian antiquities from his personal collection of over 1,000 Egyptian items. This marks the first US exhibition of Rodin’s Egyptian holdings.
The exhibition matters because it sheds light on an overlooked aspect of Rodin’s creative process, revealing how his compulsive collecting of Egyptian artifacts directly informed his revolutionary approach to the human figure. By connecting Rodin’s work to ancient non-Western sources, the show challenges conventional narratives of modern sculpture and underscores the global cross-cultural currents that shaped early 20th-century art. It also highlights the role of collectors like Rodin in preserving and recontextualizing ancient art.