Art | ‘Edgar Degas – Figures in Motion’ opens tomorrow

Dega’s famous sculpture, “Little Dancer Aged Fourteen”

A new exhibition celebrating the life and works of French painter and sculptor Edgar Degas will open tomorrow in the MGM Art Space as part of the “Fun for Everyone Campaign.” It is being held in collaboration with “Le French May,” the annual arts festival that aims to promote French art and culture in Macau and Hong Kong.
The exhibition, entitled “Edgar Degas – Figures in Motion,” presents 74 pieces of bronze sculpture which have never been shown in Asia before, according to organizers, including the famous “Little Dancer Aged Fourteen.”
Curated by Dalit L. Durst of the M.T. Abraham Foundation for Visual Arts, visitors will have the chance to explore the exhibition with the aid of interactive guides.
One room in the exhibition features a zoetrope, a pre-film animation device that produces the illusion of motion through
a sequence of still pictures. It projects a succession of photographs of a horse and jockey that, through the sequence of images, creates the illusion that the animal is jumping. The room connects Degas’s fascination with motion with the title of the exhibition.
“He [Degas] took lovely photographs,” said Durst at the media preview to the exhibition. “Not only of horses, but of women and men in locomotion. He was fascinated by human and animal locomotion and movement.”
French artist Pierre-
August Renoir, a contemporary of Degas, had this to say about the artist and his ability to convey motion: “Degas found the means to express the ‘ailment’ of our contemporaries. I mean motion […] before him, only the Chinese had found the secret of motion [in Tai Chi]. This is Degas’ greatness: motion in French style” [sic].
However, the exhibition mostly features bronze sculptures by the Parisian artist. What is interesting in respect to these is that they were never intended to be shown to the public, rather they were designed to aid Degas in rendering the figures and animals in his paintings in more realistic perspective and proportionate terms. Thus the collection of his bronze figurines, representing a variety of wholesome and sometimes exaggerated poses, granted Degas a custom set of desk-sized references for his other works.
One of Degas’s most renowned sculptures, “Little Dancer Aged Fourteen” is on display in another room. Standing one-meter tall, the sculpture portrays a posing ballerina girl, wearing a corset and tutu that contrasts with the bronze of the rest of the statue.
“He used ready-made materials […] for example a real tutu that served as the skirt for the dancer and real human hair [on the sculpture’s head],” explained the curator.
“[But] the visitors hated her,” emphasized Durst when speaking to reporters. “Why? Because first of all she didn’t look very ‘classic’. They called her ‘a monkey’ or ‘an opera rat.’ She was not pretty, she was rigid and they simply hated her.”
Edgar Degas, born in 1834, is renowned for his renditions of dancers, bathing women and racecourse subjects, and is regarded as both one of the founders of the Impressionist movement as well as a pioneer in abstract art. Despite this, Degas rejected the aforementioned categorization, preferring to consider himself a realist.
Asked about what drew her personally to Degas, exhibition curator Durst told the Times that although the artist held disreputable opinions, she nevertheless thinks his life story is interesting and that he has made a significant contribution to art.
“He was a bit of a misanthrope,” she said. “He was an anti-Dreyfusard during the Dreyfus trial […] and was never sorry for having condemned captain Dreyfus. He did not like women very much, although he pictured them and portrayed them.”
“Yes, he was a well- known misogynist,” she added, “[which means] he had very contradictory qualities. But I think that his art is fascinating because he was an innovator and a modernist for his time.”
The exhibition will not feature any of Degas’ paintings; it is almost entirely composed of the bronze works designed to aid the artist.
“This collection of 74 works belongs to the foundation […] and unfortunately we don’t have any of Degas’s paintings. We could not get paintings from museums in China on time… it was complicated,” said Durst. “Of course it would have been ideal to have paintings amongst the works that would serve as dialogues with the sculptures. Maybe next time,” she jokingly proposed.
The exhibition opens on Friday and will last until November 20. It is open between 12 p.m. and 9 p.m. except on Mondays when it is closed. Admission is free. Daniel Beitler

Dalit L. Durst, curator