A Fork in The Road: The Rehearsal of The Ballet Onstage
7:00 AMA Fork in The Road
Decisions Made in Art
Curated by Sydney Reed
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| Edgar Degas, The Rehearsal of The Ballet Onstage, 1874 |
Degas is talented. That’s a given. His brushstrokes simultaneously show the harshness and finesse of ballet dancers, his equestrian scenes display both the peaceful moments before the race and the chaos of galloping hooves once the race begins, and his hands mold exquisite sculptures. Some can argue that elements of his works have flaws, but very few look at his art and dismiss him as an untalented wannabe. But what if you knew the details of Degas’ process?
What if you learned that behind each brush stroke was a man who made his models uncomfortable, not just physically, as he positioned them in challenging positions for hours, but also mentally? Degas would use the “keyhole effect,” the process of painting women in positions in which they would not normally be depicted in, as if someone was peeking through a crack in the door, a rather disturbing way to think about art. Degas wasn’t just admiring the dance moves he depicted in his paintings of the ballet, he was also analyzing the movements of the women, possibly sexualizing them in his head, but, supposedly, never acting on those images.
Degas is assumed to never have had relations with a woman. Some credit this to a fear felt by Degas that interaction with women would tarnish his ability to so accurately depict them in his art. He would observe women’s every move, make them endure painful positions (the best examples shown in the bathtub paintings), and all the while turn out amazing paintings that never showed this distanced yet oddly physical relationship. He observed and painted the ballerina’s in their most vulnerable state – rehearsal. Degas focused on the times when the moves had yet to be perfected, when the dancers could fall, fail, and exhibit the pain that became beauty. Degas watched over his subjects,
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| Edgar Degas, Ballet Rehearsal (La salle de danse), ca. 1891 |
All this begs to differ, at what point does the viewer decide that enough is enough? When does the viewer dismiss the painting not because of a lack of talent, but because of the actions of the artist? After learning about Degas’ rather abusive relationship with women, does the viewer simply walk past the scene of ballerinas when touring the gallery, without granting the painting even a sideways glance? Compare this with the celebrities of today. If an all-star athlete with an outstanding record and celebrity image commits a heinous crime, do you stop wearing that person’s jersey? Or does that depend on the crime, the conviction, or even how famous the person really was, or stays? At what point can you separate the artist from the image? This decision is left to each individual viewer. So what do you think? Does Degas’ process overshadow his talent, or does the final product stand alone, untarnished from Degas’ tactics?
Authors' Note – Many thanks to Natalie Dockhorn who introduced me to the other side of Degas in both class discussions and in her senior research paper, Degas and His Women: An Analysis of Degas’s Use of Women Throughout His Career. I credit my argument to her.
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