MoMA show of Edgar Degas prints illustrates his love for experimenting
Impressionist found his ‘perfect medium’ in the monotype, a drawing that’s printed, using them to document social change in 19th century Paris and hone his art. New York show brings together 120
Every picture tells a story – but that’s not the way Edgar Degas looked at it. The Impressionist painter, known mainly for his pictures of ballerinas, was more interested in the form of his subjects, and in working out ways to convey the way they moved, than their lives and experiences.
This desire for experimentation takes centre stage in “Edgar Degas: A Strange Beauty”, an exhibition of the artist’s little-seen monotypes on show at New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) until July 24. (A monotype is essentially a hybrid of drawing and printing – it’s a drawing that’s printed. )
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Degas, as with most of the Impressionists, is an interesting example of how times can smooth out the rough edges of history. Today, it wouldn’t be unusual to see a commercial print of one of his ballerina paintings used ornamentally, perhaps adorning a kitchen wall. But back in the 19th century, Impressionism was a form of experimental art, derided by the critics and hated by a public who thought the indistinct images were made by artists who couldn’t paint properly.
Heads of a Man and a Woman. Monotype on paper. Photo: British Museum
“The show is all about experimentation,” says Jodi Hauptman, MoMA’s senior curator, department of arts and prints. “We’re focusing on the monotypes as a kind of case study for experimentation. Degas had an incredible influence on the 20th century, and part of that was down to the way he experimented. “He was mainly interested in what materials could do, and art for him was an adventure, an experiment. He always took things as far as they could go.”
Degas made more than 300 monotypes from the 1870s to the late 1890s, and 120 of these rarely exhibited prints, borrowed from collectors all over the world, make up the MoMA show.
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All good artists reflect their times, consciously or unconsciously, and Degas was no different. He was interested in showing the changes that were occurring in Paris in the late 1800s. The notion of leisure time for those other than the idle rich was relatively new, and his pictures showed the entertainers – café singers and dancers – who were fulfilling this social need.
Landscape with Rocks. Pastel over monotype in oil on wove paper. Photo: High Museum of Art, Atlanta
Advances like electrical power, too, were a novelty, and artists wanted to find ways of depicting how these new technologies were being used. New visions often demand new artistic materials, and that’s where, for Degas, the monotype came in.
“He was always looking for the correct medium to show these new subjects,” says Hauptman. “Degas was interested in the world around him. But how do you depict that? Monotype served those purposes for him. It was the perfect medium for him.”
