The Upcoming
  • Cinema & Tv
    • Movie reviews
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Tribeca
      • Sundance London
      • Cannes
      • Locarno
      • Venice
      • London
      • Toronto
    • Show reviews
  • Music
    • Live music
  • Food & Drinks
    • News & Features
    • Restaurant & bar reviews
    • Interviews & Recipes
  • Theatre
  • Art
  • Travel & Lifestyle
  • Literature
  • Fashion & Beauty
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • News & Features
    • Shopping & Trends
    • Tips & How-tos
    • Fashion weeks
      • London Fashion Week
      • London Fashion Week Men’s
      • New York Fashion Week
      • Milan Fashion Week
      • Paris Fashion Week
      • Haute Couture
  • Join us
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Support us
    • Contact us
  • Competitions
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • RSS

CultureArt

Drawn in Colour: Degas from the Burrell at the National Gallery

Drawn in Colour: Degas from the Burrell at the National Gallery | Exhibition review
19 September 2017
Anna Souter
Avatar
Anna Souter
19 September 2017

Exhibition and art

Anna Souter

Drawn in Colour: Degas from the Burrell

★★★★★

Dates

20th September 2017 - 7th May 2018

Entry

Free

Links & directions

TwitterWebsiteMap

Upon entering the National Gallery’s Drawn in Colour exhibition, the first thing visitors notice is how dark it is. With no natural light and lower ceilings than expected, it doesn’t seem the obvious place to host a show about a master such as Degas, known for his evocative depictions of ballet dancers and racehorses.

As the wall panel quickly explains, however, the pastel works in this exhibition are extremely sensitive to light and can only be displayed under specific conditions. More than this, though, although we might think of Degas’s work as light and airy, this exhibition reveals a much darker and more intense side to his practice, and the semi-darkness actually lends the experience an appropriate air of drama and even of voyeurism.

Although the presentation is nominally about colour, it is really about seeing and vision. In the first room, a small drawing shows a fashionable woman staring out at the viewer through a pair of binoculars. The effect is unsettling and characteristically modern; we, the viewers, are being observed by the subject.

Although this woman stares back at us, elsewhere the overwhelming sensation is of the viewer as voyeur. Degas’s depictions of women bathing or in states of undress are shocking in their immediacy, sensuality and realism. Their poses are awkward, displaying their bodies unknowingly to the viewer who seems to be, in Degas’s own words, “watching at the keyhole”.

The exhibition is a revelation in the way that it places these images alongside Degas’s better-known depictions of ballet dancers, throwing a new and unexpected light upon the latter. Drawn in Colour also uses technical analysis to demonstrate the artist’s revolutionary approach to the medium of pastel, which he uses to create a dazzling array of varied effects and colours. A far cry from the picture-postcard Degas most people know, this is Degas as a radical artist with a deeply unsettling approach towards his subjects, especially women. This is a darkly fascinating, quality exhibition that elsewhere you would almost certainly pay to see, but the National Gallery is offering it for free: there’s no excuse.

★★★★★

Anna Souter

Drawn in Colour: Degas from the Burrell is at the National Gallery from 20th September 2017 until 7th May 2018. For further information visit here.

Related Itemsreview

More in Art

Africa Fashion at the V&A

★★★★★
Jessica Wall
Read More

Edvard Munch: Masterpieces from Bergen

★★★★★
James White
Read More

Summer Exhibition 2022 at the Royal Academy of Arts

★★★★★
Mersa Auda
Read More

Penny Goring: Penny World at ICA

★★★★★
Mersa Auda
Read More

Metamorphosis and flow: Orlanda Broom debuts powerful abstract show Shapeshifters at Grove Square Galleries

The editorial unit
Read More

Feminine Power: The Divine to the Demonic at the British Museum

★★★★★
Jessica Wall
Read More

Cornelia Parker at Tate Britain

★★★★★
James White
Read More

Our Time on Earth at the Barbican

★★★★★
Jessica Wall
Read More

Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirror Rooms at Tate Modern

★★★★★
Cristiana Ferrauti
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap

Exhibition and art

Anna Souter

Drawn in Colour: Degas from the Burrell

★★★★★

Dates

20th September 2017 - 7th May 2018

Entry

Free

Links & directions

TwitterWebsiteMap

  • Popular

  • Latest

  • TOP PICKS

  • Africa Fashion at the V&A
    ★★★★★
    Art
  • Beauty and the Beast: The Musical at London Palladium
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • St Vincent at the Hammersmith Apollo
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • Netflix Walking Tour: From Bridgerton to The Crown, a free walking tour through the filming locations
    Cinema & Tv
  • Minions: The Rise of Gru
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • The Railway Children Return
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Eric Ravilious: Drawn to War
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Beauty and the Beast: The Musical at London Palladium
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • The Terminal List
    ★★★★★
    amazon
  • Baymax!
    ★★★★★
    disney
  • The Railway Children Return
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Beauty and the Beast: The Musical at London Palladium
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • St Vincent at the Hammersmith Apollo
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • Netflix Walking Tour: From Bridgerton to The Crown, a free walking tour through the filming locations
    Cinema & Tv
  • Africa Fashion at the V&A
    ★★★★★
    Art
The Upcoming
Pages
  • Contact us
  • Join mailing list
  • Join us
  • Our London food map
  • Our writers
  • Support us
  • What, when, why
With the support from:
International driving license

Copyright © 2011-2020 FL Media

Tramontane | Movie review
Bar Bahar (In Between) | Movie review