The Glyptotek Museum (I)
Last week I went on my first field study with my art history class. We went to the Glyptotek museum to see its French Painting exhibit. The Glyptotek is a stunning museum founded by Carl Jacobsen, the founder of the Carlsberg beer company, who had a strong interest in historical artifacts and modern art.
The exhibit we were there to see was a perfect introduction to the class. The works selected, which spans the whole 20th century from impressionism into expressionism, highlighted the connections between the two seemingly different art movements. They were displayed in reverse chronological order so as to how show the shift away from impressionism lead logically to expressionism. As my professor noted, we could see how the gestural brushstrokes turn into abstracted shapes, how the soft hues of impressionism turned into the bight and vivid colors of expressionism, and why technically specific painting gave way to free experimental approaches.
We finished our visit with Edgar Degas' sculptures. The Glyptotek collection owns a complete set of his bronzes, one of the few museums to do so. The clay and wax originals were found in his studio after his death, and multiple sets of bronzes were made. But Degas never intended these for public viewing, as the wooden shelf display aims to remind us. My professor explained that Degas created these as three dimensional sketches for his well-know two dimensional pastels and paintings. This explains their focus on movement and precarious poses: they are models of a moment.
After our class tour was over, I returned to the french painting exhibit. I walked into a room we hadn't seen and found myself face to face with the Little Dancer. It felt like running into an old friend. In first grade, my class took a field trip to a Degas recollective, where we all had to sketch the Little Dancer. I had that drawing up in my room for years, and even had a stuffed toy Little Dancer. She followed me to college too, as there is a version of Little Dancer in Los Angeles at the museum near me. I sat with her for a while and reminisced. I wondered if anyone ever reties her big satin bow for her. I hope they do so with care.
Update:
My mom dug up my 1st grade sketch of the Little Dancer. I think it has a touch of expressionist representation in it, wouldn't you say?
