As I mentioned in yesterday's blog, I went to see the Degas exhibit at the Denver Art Museum this past Sunday on the final day of the show. What I really like about these exhibits at the DAM is how they try to include historic photographs or film footage to set the scene for the works you are seeing. The photograph on the left is actually a photo of a 15 second loop of film taken of Edgar Degas during his afternoon walk. The filmmaker asked Degas if he could film him, Degas refused, and so the filmmaker set up his camera along the street in Paris where Degas took his daily walk. Pretty sneaky, and pretty smart - it captured an everyday scene, and forever preserved a glimpse of the famous artist.
In the photograph on the right is a mock-up of Degas attic studio in Paris. Degas was a bit of a collector, and so the studio was filled with knickknacks he picked up in his travels, his paintings and sculptures in various stages of completion, and of course, his brushes, paints, and other tools of the trade. There was also a tin bathtub where his nude models would pose. The few visitors who were allowed up there found it very claustrophobic. What I like best about the scene is the view of Paris outside the window. How great is that?
At the end of the exhibit was the photograph on the left, showing Degas and his hangers-on in a bit of a whimsical mood. Like I said before, these photographs record a bit of history, show us what these artists actually looked like, and give us a feel for what their world was like back in the late 19th and early 20th century. And as far as I'm concerned, Paris looked good back then and looks good now. As Audrey Hepburn once said as the title character in the movie Sabrina: "Paris is always a good idea."
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