Something to contemplate: 'The Thinker' coming to South Dakota

By PAUL WALSH, Star Tribune

Last update: April 15, 2009 - 10:51 AM

Just think of it: The works of Rodin are coming to South Dakota.

"Rodin: A Magnificent Obsession" completes its eight-year-long worldwide tour from May 9 to Aug. 1 at the Washington Pavilion of Arts and Science in Sioux Falls.

The tour offers a complete retrospective of the Auguste Rodin's career and includes more than 60 bronzes, from small studies to monumental works.

Yes, "The Thinker" is among those to be displayed. It is a 3-foot-tall casting based on the famed original sculpture. All of the works in the exhibition are deemed original - either cast in bronze during Rodin's lifetime or cast posthumously according to his explicit wishes and instructions to the French government upon his death in 1917.

The works are drawn from the largest private Rodin collection in the world, amassed by the late B. Gerald Cantor, an American who was fascinated by the Frenchman who was regarded as the greatest sculptor since Michelangelo.

Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482