- The revolutionary book by Gregory Hedberg caused a vivid discussion
in the art world even before its publication- Pictures and radiographs
of the Little Dancer plasters, waxes and bronzes show Degas' work like
never before- The additional DVD features more detailed photographs,
original documents and statements by the authorA recently discovered
plaster of Little Dancer, Aged Fourteen is critically challenging our
understanding of Edgar Degas' most famous work. Documentary and
technical evidence confirm that the plaster was cast from Degas' Little
Dancer before the wax sculpture was extensively reworked after 1903. The
plaster thus records Degas' wax as it appeared when it shocked the
Parisian art world at the sixth Impressionist exhibition of 1881. It
reveals a far more revolutionary work than the reworked Little Dancer
wax and the posthumous HÃ(c)brard bronzes we know today. The plaster
shows why Joris-Karl Huysmans, in 1881, raved that Degas' Little Dancer
was the only truly modern attempt I know of in sculpture and why the
work left Whistler in a state of near delirium. The plaster reveals
Degas at his most innovative by introducing a radical idea of posing a
lowly 'opera rat' as a revered figure by giving her an iconic pose, then
locking her into a square vitrine, thus emphasizing her symmetrical,
four-sided stance. It is now clear that in his Little Dancer Degas
anticipated radical ideas that came to define key aspects of modern art,
dramatically impacting his most noted peers, including Whistler, Manet,
Seurat and Sargent. Even twentieth-century masterpieces by Duchamp,
Giacometti, Oldenburg, Warhol and Hirst reflect, albeit indirectly,
Degas' masterful innovations.
