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10 November 2004-30 January 2005
Sunley Room. Admission free
Sponsored by ExxonMobil
Invitation to the press View: Tuesday 9 November 10:30am - 1pm
At 10:50am there will be a welcome by Charles Saumarez Smith followed by a brief tour of the exhibition by the curators at 11am.
The latest of the award-winning 'Art in the Making' exhibitions at the National Gallery focuses on one of the most innovative artists of the 19th century, Edgar Degas (1834 - 1917). Modern technology has been instrumental in illuminating the artist's brilliantly experimental working methods. By revealing what lies beneath familiar paintings, technical examination has brought whole new perspectives to our understanding of Degas's art and the ways in which he achieved his unique visual effects.
Throughout his long career he ranged over the boundaries of painting, pastel and the graphic arts, printmaking (in particular monotypes), photography and sculpture - and he often combined different media in the same work. The exhibition features an in-depth examination of fourteen works by Degas, covering all periods of his career, from his carefully worked early portraits and history paintings to his later period. X-rays and infrared photographic techniques will reveal how Degas compulsively reworked many of his compositions, sometimes as he planned them, sometimes much later. What often looks like the spontaneous sketch of a moment, was in reality the elaborate result of a perfectionist.
This is the first time that thorough evaluations of Degas's techniques have been brought together in one exhibition. One of Degas's surprising innovations was his use of tracing paper to copy and reproduce his drawings over and over again - sometimes omitting sections, sometimes flipping so as to reverse the image. The 'Russian Dancers' series was his boldest exercise in this technique: the National Gallery's version, in pastel on tracing paper, will be shown alongside one of the others in the series, on loan from the Berwick upon Tweed Museum.
Key loans from other museums will accompany the National Gallery works. One of the most significant will be the extraordinary unfinished version of 'The Young Spartans' of 1860 (from the Art Institute of Chicago) which will hang beside the finished National Gallery painting for the first time since they left Degas's studio - together with preparatory drawings from Paris. The narrative of the development over several decades of 'The Young Spartans' - which remained in Degas's studio until his death - will be one of the highlights of the exhibition.
Notes to Editors
Entrance to the exhibition is free.
There will be a video that accompanies the exhibition showing in the Sunley Room cinema.
We are delighted that ExxonMobil is continuing its support of the National Gallery's exhibition programme by sponsoring 'Art in the Making: Degas'. This is the 16th exhibition the company has supported at the National Gallery since it sponsored the first in the Art in the Making series in 1988.
The National Gallery Company are publishing a catalogue to accompany the exhibition 'Art in the Making: Degas' by David Bomford, Sarah Herring, Christopher Riopelle, Jo Kirby and Ashok Roy. The catalogue will be priced at £16.95 and will be distributed by Yale.
For further PRESS information and images please contact Lara Raymond on 020 7747 2596 or lara.raymond@ng-london.org.uk. For general enquiries please contact the National Gallery on 020 7747 2885 or visit the website.
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