Throughout his life, Pablo Picasso (1881‱973) was fascinated with the life and work of Edgar Degas (1834‱917). Picasso collected the Impressionist’s pictures, continually re-interpreted his images, and at the end of his life, created scenes that included depictions of Degas himself.
“Picasso Looks at Degas,” a groundbreaking exhibition at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute June 13⁓eptember 12, brings together more than 100 works from international museums and private collections. The exhibition is the first to explore Picasso’s direct response to Degas’s work and includes never-before-exhibited archival material that sheds new light on his relationship with the ballet.
The Clark is the exclusive North American venue for the exhibition, which is curated by well-known Picasso expert Elizabeth Cowling and recognized Impressionist scholar Richard Kendall. Following its run here, the exhibition will be presented at the Museu Picasso in Barcelona this fall.
The depth of Picasso’s fixation is revealed through dramatic pairings and groupings of art that have never been brought together in this ambitious way. Degas’s “In a Café (L’Absinthe)” (1875‷6, Musée d’Orsay) is placed alongside Picasso’s “Portrait of Sebastià Junyer i Vidal” (1903, Los Angeles County Museum of Art).
Picasso’s oil on canvas “The Blue Room (The Tub)” (1901, Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.) is paired with “The Tub” (circa 1889, collection Jacques Doucet, Paris), a monotype by Degas that may have served as a prototype, while Picasso’s 1905 “Portrait of Benedetta Canals” (Museu Picasso, Barcelona) is hung beside Degas’s “Woman with an Umbrella” (circa 1876, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa).
“This exhibition is the culmination of five years of research,” said Michael Conforti, director of the Clark. “Curators Elizabeth Cowling and Richard Kendall began discussing the exhibition ten years ago and have met with members of the Picasso family, studied hundreds of works by Picasso and Degas, and visited archives, museums and private collections in the United States and Europe. Their insightful work will change our view of Picasso as an artist. This fresh look at two of the greatest artists of the modern period will fascinate visitors as well as scholars and art historians.”
Picasso and Degas shared many acquaintances and lived in proximity in Paris until the older artist’s death in 1917, through they probably never met. “Picasso Looks at Degas” examines Degas through Picasso’s eyes and the ways the Spanish artist’s response varied over time from emulation to confrontation and parody to homage.
The artists shared a lifelong obsession with women, visible in their portraits of friends and images of singers, laundresses, ballet dancers, bathers and prostitutes. It is widely acknowledged that these are Degas’s signature themes, but all of them are echoed in Picasso’s work.
While usually identified as painters, both Degas and Picasso were innovative sculptors, printmakers and fine draftsmen, and the exhibition brings together works in these different media to examine Picasso’s reaction to the challenge of Degas.
In pictures such as “End of the Performance” (1900‰1, Museu Picasso, Barcelona), Picasso pays tribute to Degas’s café-concert scenes by depicting singers in midperformance on stage.
The ballet, a central theme in Degas’s work and paintings such as “Dancers in the Classroom” (circa 1880, the Clark), established him as the Impressionist artist of dance. The exhibit examines Picasso’s depiction of the ballet at various points in his career.
In a striking example of how the artists’ unspoken dialogue unfolded, the Clark’s iconic sculpture “Little Dancer Aged Fourteen” (1880‸1), considered shocking and radical in its time, is juxtaposed with Picasso’s “Standing Nude” (1907, Civiche Raccolte d’Arte, Milan), which heralded Cubism.
“Picasso Looks at Degas” was organized by the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute and the Museu Picasso, Barcelona.
The exhibition is curated by Elizabeth Cowling, professor emeritus of history of art at Edinburgh University, and Richard Kendall, the Clark’s curator at large. The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalog distributed by Yale University Press.
The Clark is at 225 South Street. For more information, www.clarkart.edu or 413-458-2303.
