M.V. Edgar Degas -A Strange New Beauty-

Edgar Degas: A Strange New Beauty

written by Natsumi Goldfish

This is a follow up review of A Strange New Beauty, Edgar Degas at MoMA Museum.
Exhibition Period: March 26–July 24, 2016

It was such a visually satisfying and informative exhibition.  

Edgar Degas (1834 - 1917, aged 83) is a French artist widely known as a painter, and a chronicler if the ballet, but also his printmaking and drawings and sculptures are famous. 
Some of his iconic contemporary subjects are ballet girls, girls bath scenes, and social party scenes, which is interestingly quite different from his initial goal to become a history painter. His painting has classic touch but subject he painted was modern (and social) life of middle to upper class.

This exhibition is focused on his drawing, monotype printmaking, and his colored monotype prints.  He was introduced to monotype printmaking in the mid 1870s. 

Collections in this show (photos below) display his process in developing one picture, as well as how he played with colors, and his moving interests while the process. Drawing to Etching, monotype Etching to colored piece, he worked on few versions for one picture just like his painting. The exhibition explains that his interest in female bath scenes came mainly form 18th century's Rococo, the artistic movement and style. Personally, it was interesting to observe an artist's interest and the interest's changing in making process through his artworks. 

Degas is known (especially for his painting of ballet dancers) that he used same or similar images of figures repeatedly in one painting, sometimes reversed same image, and or also that same figure in same posture appears in another painting. I see his love and interest and smartness as an artist in his ballet dancers. I felt this monotype however is perhaps showing his another interest and different from those repeated visual harmony, but more of his personal artistic passion, interest and study and experiment for himself.

There are numerous exhibitions about a master, in this case of Edgar Degas, but this exhibition was something that stranded out from a perspective as a today's artist working with the same fine art mediums.

This kind of exhibitions makes a museum even more worth to visit.