Cleveland impressionist exhibit coming to Salt Lake

CLEVELAND — He's been locked away in storage for 16 months during the renovation and expansion of the Cleveland Museum of Art, but now art patrons have a rare chance to see Rodin's imposing "The Thinker" face-to-face. (The exhibition will come to Salt Lake City in June 2008.)

The hulking figure of a man sitting at the gates of hell, his chin resting on his right hand, previously perched on a pedestal outside the white marble museum overlooking a grand staircase and lagoon.

Now, at least temporarily, the sculpture acquired in 1917 has come down to eye level, displayed indoors as part of a special exhibit of 142 museum masterpieces. Half have just returned to their home after a making 15-month tour of Beijing, Tokyo, Seoul, South Korea, and Vancouver, Canada — an exhibit that drew more than 680,000 people.

"The Thinker" didn't make the trip, instead left behind in storage as the museum plowed ahead with a six-year, $258 million expansion and renovation to provide more gallery, office and parking space at its parklike setting in the city's museum-university district.

The exhibit "Impressionist and Modern Masters From the Cleveland Museum of Art" opens Sunday and runs through Jan. 13. It includes Claude Monet's "The Red Kerchief," "Dancers" by Edgar Degas, Paul Gauguin's "In the Waves" and Salvador Dali's "The Dream."

"They are first-rank, first-rate works by these amazing artists that every museum would love to have," said an admiring Leslie Curtis, associate professor of art history at nearby John Carroll University.

Curtis said an impressive part of the exhibit is its concentration of masterpieces, including works by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Pierre Renoir, Amedeo Modigliani, Henri Matisse and Vincent van Gogh.

The touring portion of the exhibit will leave Cleveland again next year and head to the Frist Center for the Visual Arts in Nashville, Tenn., on Feb. 14; the Utah Museum of Fine Arts on June 22; and the Detroit Institute of Art on Oct. 12. The works will rejoin the permanent collection in 2009 and the renovation-expansion will be complete in 2011.

Most of the works will be seen as beloved favorites to many who have missed the collection during the museum's virtual shutdown, but the close-up display of the iconic "The Thinker" is sure to get extra attention from visitors.

The idea of putting "The Thinker" in a snug indoor gallery didn't sit well with everyone.