Impression in an Omnibus

Like his counterparts who were changing the face of late 19th century painting through their experimentation with Impressionism, Medardo Rosso brought a new language to sculpture. His preference was always for soft forms, made out of material that seems perpetually on the verge of dissolution. His most innovative sculptures were made out of wax - reminiscent for Minnesotans of the famous butter sculptures at the State Fair. In fact, Rosso's sculptures often have an unstable and faintly organic quality. Looking like ghostly apparitions in the process of decay, they have sometimes been referred to as memory sculptures. Illusive, fragile, and seemingly fleeting, their sense of vulnerability evokes a particularly morbid curiosity.