The North Carolina Museum of Art announced it has received an unprecedented gift of Auguste Rodin works from the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation. The gift of 24 works of art, including 22 bronze sculptures by Rodin, makes the museum one of the world’s top Rodin repositories and the only cultural institution in the South with a major Rodin collection.

The works will be displayed in new galleries, which will be part of a planned $75 million expansion initiative slated for completion in 2008. As part of the expansion, the museum will establish a Rodin study center and name a Rodin gallery and adjacent garden in honor of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation.

“We are fortunate that North Carolina has now joined the prestigious group of museums to house some of Rodin’s finest work,” said North Carolina Governor Michael F. Easley. “Iris Cantor’s generous gift will open a new world of opportunities and experiences for museum visitors and students alike.”

Auguste Rodin, “The Cathedral,” modeled 1908, bronze, 25 ¼ by 12 ¾ by 13 ½ inches. Promised gift of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation.

Among the Rodin works that the museum will receive are castsof the celebrated sculptures “The Kiss” and “The Thinker,” as wellas “Cybele,” “Monumental Torso of the Walking Man,” “The ThreeShades,” “Monumental Head of Pierre de Wiessant” and “Jean deFiennes, Vetu.” The gift also includes Camille Claudel’s “Bust ofRidon” and a demonstration piece explaining the lost-wax castingprocess of Rodin’s “Sorrow.”

“With this gift of 24 works from the Cantor Foundation, the North Carolina Museum of Art becomes the first place in the Southeastern United States to house a Rodin collection,” said Iris Cantor. “I have never forgotten the overwhelming response that greeted our first Rodin exhibition there five years ago, and I know that the same enthusiasm will ensure that the great sculptor’s works are always appreciated.”

French sculptor Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) is regarded as one of the greatest artists of his day and was considered by his contemporaries to be the most innovative and influential sculptor since Michelangelo. His primary subject and source of inspiration was the human body and his genius lay in his ability to free sculpture from the academic and highly idealized conventions that characterized his predecessors’ works. His subjective and impressionistic modeling technique captured movement and expressed emotion by altering traditional poses and gestures to create intense, highly individualized figures that celebrate the human spirit.

Auguste Rodin, “The Thinker,” modeled 1880, reduced in 1903, bronze, 14 ¾ by 7 7/8 by 11 3/8 inches. Promised gift of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation.

Established in 1978, the Cantor Foundation has donated morethan 450 Rodin works and Rodin-related material to more than 70museums, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the BrooklynMuseum of Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Irisand B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University.The foundation also has circulated traveling exhibitions on Rodinacross the globe.

As the first museum in the country to receive public funds to purchase an art collection, the North Carolina Museum of Art serves as a model for public art institutions. It is one of the region’s premier visual art museums, with an annual attendance of more than 300,000. The planned expansion, designed by Thomas Phifer and Partners of New York, is expected to increase gallery space by 40 percent and provide much-needed space for the museum’s growing permanent collection, as well as the Rodin gift.

The North Carolina Museum of Art is at 2110 Blue Ridge Road. For information, www.ncartmuseum.org or 919-839-6262.

Auguste Rodin, “The Three Shades,” 1880-1904, bronze, 75 ½ by 75 ½ by 42 inches. Promised gift of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation.