Buley–Uribe, Christina

PERSONAL:

Female.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Musée Rodin, 79 rue de Varenne, 75007 Paris, France.

CAREER:

Art curator. Musée Rodin, Paris, France, curator of graphic works.

WRITINGS:

(With Antoinette Le Normand-Romain) Auguste Rodin: Drawings & Watercolours, Thames & Hudson (New York, NY), 2006.

SIDELIGHTS:

Christina Buley-Uribe is a curator of graphic works at Paris's Musée Rodin. The museum features the paintings, sculptures, and other artwork by the French artist François Auguste René Rodin.

Buley-Uribe published her first book, Auguste Rodin: Drawings & Watercolours, in 2006 with Antoinette Le Normand-Romain. Although Rodin is most famous for his sculptures, the book primarily covers Rodin's drawings and watercolors, which he considered the basis of his sculptures. Buley-Uribe and Le Normand-Romain each contribute an essay in the first section of the book. Le Normand-Romain's essay covers the early part of the artist's career, including his "black drawings" and those relating to The Gates of Hell. Buley-Uribe's essay discusses the significance of Rodin's drawings in his middle and late career, noting in particular his nudes and dancers that were influenced by Japanese, Javanese, Cambodian, ancient Egyptian, and ancient Greek cultural arts. The larger second section of the book highlights the museum's collection of drawings and watercolors in color and is organized chronologically, marking the first time many of these works have been published. In total, several hundred illustrations of thousands of Rodin's drawings and watercolors are included in the book. A contributor to Publishers Weekly described Auguste Rodin as "handsome" aside from a few small style problems. The same contributor commented that the "well-produced color illustrations underscore the genius of an artist whose remarkable drawings and watercolors … deserve to be better known." Martha Smith, reviewing Auguste Rodin in the Library Journal, observed that the lack of an index "makes it difficult to locate works on specific topics." Smith, however, recommended the book. She found that other existing books on the artist do not encompass his "drawings in such depth and detail."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Choice, September, 2007, M.T. Simms, review of Auguste Rodin: Drawings & Watercolours, p. 86.

Library Journal, July 1, 2007, Martha Smith, review of Auguste Rodin, p. 89.

Publishers Weekly, January 22, 2007, review of Auguste Rodin, p. 174.