littlestar

i went to the legion of honors for the first time to see the degas sculpture exhibit and the other things they had there, like the photos of india from the 19th-early 20th century.

the short version:
it's cool stuff

the long version:
degas' stuff was pretty cool. it's quite obvious that he didn't mean for those pieces to be finished pieces, rather.... studies to further his understanding about the human form. this explains the rough textures and unfinished qualities of some of the pieces. after all, he never had them bronzed or anything, some people that came across his studio and found all these charming wax and clay studies and decided to bronze them for all posterity.

so there really isn't all that much of his input in the choice or foundary or color of the patina since he was already dead when they bronzed them.

i was particularly interested in the arabesque pieces and decided i wanted to write my museum paper for art history on them. though they were studies and three separate pieces, i think the curator did a good job by placing them in succession in one glass area since they are essentially screenshots of a progression of an arabesque.

the sensitivity he had for muscle tension and how a body would have to shift in balance and weight to sustain that kind of stance was excellent and the pieces had a sense of vibrancy to them.

you see.... i didn't really like degas. rather, i didn't really take him all that seriously. i mostly thought of him as a person with really pretty pictures of ballet dancers. that he could do this with clay and that he had that much knowledge of the human form really upped my respect for him. (i don't think it was one of his primary concerns though)

i didn't like his horse studies that much, but it was pretty obvious that he was just starting to figure horses out, whereas he was an expert in ballet figures.

i really found the more twisting, tense, sinewy figures the most interesting. the way they reflect the light (which isn't intentional, since clay studies don't tend to reflect light) really impacts the way the form flows and is perceived by the eye.

by the time i was done staring at the arabesque series for 20-30 minutes, my brain was fried and i coasted through the rest of the exhibits.

i liked the rodins, but stanford definitely has a better collection. i was disappointed to realize that the denaid (sp?) wasn't at the legion of honor, as an old classmate had told me. but that's fine, that's why i bought the book on rodin back then.

there was a really funky picture of lucretia stabbing herself to death with a bare bosom. i find that kind of thing disturbing. interestingly enough, it's next to a portrait of judith lopping off some general's head (my old testament knowledge is a little rusty). so what is that supposed to be? the empowering of women next to a portrait of a woman that was enchained by patriarchal values?

ok. enough. i have more things to blog about :)