Past Exhibitions
Degas in Bronze
Now, visitors to Phoenix Art Museum have an unprecedented opportunity to experience a complete set of all 73 of Edgar Degas' sculptures come to life. It is an exploration, like no other, of motion, method and the artist's mind. It is perhaps the most important body of sculpture produced in the 19th century; it is the vital link between the way sculptors worked before and ever since.
The exhibition offers an intimate understanding of how Degas evolved to become an important impressionist artist and a fuller view of his creative genius for representing the figure in motion. He looked at life in Paris with a new eye, especially through his two favorite subjects, dancers and horses - they shared an array of motion, pose and expression, to which Degas dedicated his career. These concepts permeate his sculptures, as explored in this exhibition, as well as his paintings, pastels, prints, drawings and photographs. But it was with his work in clay and wax that allowed him to understand a movement, a form, in all of its three-dimensional glory. It is through his sculpture that we see the evolution of his creative genius and his landmark contribution to the birth of Modernism.
Featured among Degas' celebrated dancers, bathers and horses in Degas in Bronze is the famed Little Dancer, Aged Fourteen. This single sculpture, worked on by Degas for two years, may be the most historically important sculpture in French art of the 19th century. This masterpiece was the only sculpture Degas exhibited in his lifetime when he included it in the sixth exhibition of impressionist art in Paris in 1881. While the groundbreaking mixed-media work was roundly condemned at the time by a number of prominent critics, many of his fellow impressionist artists applauded him as the first modern sculptor. His close friend, artist Mary Cassatt, believed "...he will live to be greater as a sculptor than as a painter," and Pierre-Auguste Renoir went so far as to proclaim Degas "the greatest living sculptor."
Upon his death in 1917, approximately 150 wax and modeling clay sculptures were found in his studio in various states of completion and repair. His colleagues recognized the importance of preserving these works for posterity and his heirs chose 73 examples to be cast in bronze in a very limited edition by the Parisian art-foundry Hébrard. These have allowed subsequent generations remarkable access to Degas' creative process and method. Degas in Bronze features one of only four complete sets that remain. By showing all 73 of his bronze sculptures of dancers, bathers and horses together, it offers special insight into both the working practice and the mind of perhaps the most important artist at this critical period in the history of art.
The exhibition is organized by Joseph S. Czestochowski, International Arts, Memphis, Tennessee, from the Collections of the Museu de Arte de São Paulo, Brazil. The Arizona presentation is made possible by Barbara C. Dow, Bank One, SRP, and the Museum's Friends of European Art and Connoisseurs Circle. Promotional support is provided by ClearChannel Radio, The Arizona Republic, KPNX-TV Channel 12, Phoenix Magazine, KJZZ/KBAQ Radio and The Jewish News of Greater Phoenix.
Left: Little Dancer, Aged Fourteen (no.73). Edgar Degas, modeled 1880/81. Bronze. Collection Museu de Arte de Sao Paolo, Brazil. Photo by Pierre-Alain Ferrazzini. Center: Dancer at Rest (no.63). Edgar Degas, modeled 1881-1895. Bronze. Collection Museu de Arte de Sao Paolo, Brazil. Photo by Pierre-Alain Ferrazzini. Right: Dancer Fourth Position (no.06). Edgar Degas, modeled c. 1883-1911. Bronze. Collection Museu de Arte de Sao Paolo, Brazil. Photo by Pierre-Alain Ferrazzini.