Edgar Degas exhibition opens in Taichung City

2014-10-27

An exhibition of 74 sculptures by late 19th century French artist Edgar Degas kicked off Oct. 23 at Asia Museum of Modern Art, marking the anniversary of the Taichung City-based facility.

“We are pleased to spotlight Taichung’s cultural profile and celebrate the museum’s birthday with this special event,” Taichung City Mayor Jason Hu said at the launch ceremony. “The beauty and richness of the impressionist master’s works will attract art aficionados from home and abroad.”

The exhibition, “A Lonely Artist Gazing Through Bustling Life,” is the first international showing of Degas’s works in Taiwan. It features three sections—ballet dancers, bathing women and horses. All the artworks are from locally based Asia University’s collections.

One highlight is The Little Dancer of Fourteen Years, the only sculpture Degas exhibited in public before passing away in 1917. Sporting ballet slippers, bodice, tutu and a wig, the 1881 creation perfectly captures the timeless beauty of a ballet dancer.

Another spectacular piece is Degas’s 1869 painting “M. and Mme. Manet,” which will be on loan next May from Kitakyushu Municipal Museum of Art in Japan.

The exhibition, which concludes Aug. 2, 2015, also includes a series of aesthetics-related seminars given by cultural figures such as local art critic Chiang Hsun and Sheu Fang-yi, a former principal dancer for Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan and Martha Graham Dance Company.

Source: Taiwan Today (http://taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xItem=223254&CtNode=413)