In the spring of 1953, a young woman travelled with her three children to meet her husband, who had immigrated to London two years previously due to economic conditions. Erbil Arkın, the youngest of the three children, is less than three-years-old at the time.

 

Erbil Arkın, who grew up in London as a child of a Cypriot family, took scholarships throughout his education. When he was five or six-years-old, his teachers realised his talent for art and drawing and sent him to special painting classes.

 

As a 16-year-old young man he encounters Rodin’s monumental ‘The Kiss’ statue at the Tate Gallery, which he visited regularly, and is fascinated and struck by the statues beauty and glory. Later he visited a library where he came across a book of Rodin’s sculptures, and this cemented his passion for Auguste Rodin to this day.

 

“As a young student, who was endeavouring to go to an art college, I wouldn’t have dreamt of owning a Rodin sculpture, let alone many Rodin sculptures...but one should always aim to reach for the stars. Maybe you won’t reach the stars; however, you may find when you look back that you have reached the peak of a mountain.” 

 

“I hope that this exhibition and book will allow people to realize the passion I hold for Auguste Rodin, to see what I see and feel what I feel in his works...”