'The Complete Sculptures of Edgar Degas' lets visitors 'travel back in time'

    Athens is the first stop of a major exhibition titled "The Complete Sculptures of Edgar Degas", as the entire collection of 74 bronze sculptures by the French impressionist master embarks on a world tour.

    In Greece, the exhibition is hosted at the Herakleidon Museum, where it will run through April 25, 2010.

    The Athens venue has many "firsts". Apart from being the first stop on the world tour, it is also the first time Degas' sculptures are exhibited in Greece, and the first time all 74 sculptures are presented together.

    But another, important, first is that visitors will have, for the first time, the opportunity to "travel back in time", according to the organisers, who went on to explain:

    "We have all heard of scientists using sophisticated equipment to discover a painting of a famous artist, Da Vinci for example, hidden under one of his later works. It was not uncommon for a painter to recycle a canvas, sometimes painting the same subject, but differently. Alas, one cannot access the earlier work without destroying the later, well-known version. In other words, one may travel back in time, but without the possibility of returning to the present. Nobody is interested in that kind of travel!

    "ΤέλοςφόρμαςΑρχήφόρμαςBut now we have a unique opportunity. All the bronze sculptures in this exhibition were cast from recently discovered plasters made from Degas’ original waxes during his lifetime and with his consent. This is remarkable since all the other bronzes one currently sees in museums and elsewhere were cast from masters made after the artist’s death. Therefore, the bronzes in this exhibition can be considered as the original versions, and all the others as the second versions of the sculptures. Thus, for the first time, it will be possible for experts, scholars and the general public to compare the artist’s bronzes in the before and after states, almost unparalleled in the history of art."

    The Museum will publish a special edition catalogue in three languages. The fascinating essays in this catalogue by Mr. Walter Maibaum and Dr. Gregory Hedberg detail the history of this discovery and the differences between the bronze editions. Dr. June Hargrove’s essay discusses the relationship between Edgar Degas’ two and three-dimensional works so that appropriate comparisons can be made.

    "The Herakleidon Museum is very proud to have been selected as the organizer of this travelling exhibition of these extraordinary bronzes. Our purpose is to make the works of this truly first modern sculptor available to a broader audience," say Paul and Belinda Firos, founders of the Herakleidon Museum.

   

    Caption: From the exhibition "The Complete Sculptures of Edgar Degas" which opened in Athens on the first stop of a world tour. (ANA-MPA/O. Panagiotou)

   

   

   

   

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