The Hyde Collection’s summer 2009 exhibition, “Degas & Music,” opening July 12 and running to October 18, marks the first time the Hyde Collection will host an exhibition of the works of Edgar Degas. The exhibition is also an art-world first, as no other display of Degas’ work has exclusively focused on the artist’s fascination with music.
Approximately 35 paintings and other works from major national and international collections, as well as the Hyde’s own holdings, will be included in the exhibition. The museum has received loan confirmations of Degas works from such prestigious art museums as Musée d’Orsay in Paris, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and the National Gallery in Washington, D.C.
Other Degas works in the exhibit include pieces from the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. the Detroit Institute of Arts and the Clark Art Institute.
French Impressionist Degas is internationally renowned for his paintings, sketches and drawings, as well as his pastels and sculptures depicting the ballet and horses. According to exhibition guest curators and distinguished Degas scholars Richard Kendall and Jill DeVonyar, however, Degas delighted in music and often attended musical performances multiple times a week.
“This exhibition is absolutely groundbreaking. It will offer visitors and art scholars alike a unique view of the artist’s fascination with music and musical performers, which predates and informs his interest in dance,” said David F. Setford, the Hyde’s executive director. “Long before he picked up a brush, he was involved in his family’s musical soirees. In fact, it could be said that music was the touchstone of Degas’ artistic life.”
In addition to the exhibition, the museum is coordinating a series of lectures, exhibitions, performances and community events, all with Degas-related themes. The series, titled “Season of Degas,” brings together 40 arts institutions and community organizations, that will host collaborative programs both at the Hyde and surrounding venues from New York’s Capital District north to Saratoga Springs and the Lake George region. More than 70 Degas-themed events will be conducted in five upstate New York counties through October.
The Hyde Collection is at 161 Warren Street. For information, www.hydecollection.org or 518-792-1761.
