He
was a little bit older and a whole lot crankier, but Degas is mostly still
considered an Impressionist. Like Duke Ellington and “jazz,” Degas helped shape
our conception of Impressionism, but he hated the term. Viewers get a good
eyeful of Degas’s art and a full biographical account in David Bickerstaff’s Degas:
Passion for Perfection, which screens Wednesday at Symphony Space, as part
of the Exhibition on Screen series.
Born
Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, the classically-trained artist opted for the
simpler, less haughty-sounding Edgar Degas. Originally, he intended to be a
painter of historical scenes, but we now know him for his paintings of dancers,
theater patrons, horse-racers, and the people you might find in a brothel
milieu. If Game of Thrones had been around in the 1870s, he would have
been the right artist to provide illustrations.
Bickerstaff’s
film is not merely a high-class screen-saver. We see plenty of Degas’s art, as
well as a fair measure from his contemporaries (especially Mary Cassatt), but
Bickerstaff and his experts fully chronicle the artist’s life, identify his
artistic inspirations, and trace his influence on other artists. They duly
examine his anti-Dreyfusard anti-Semitism, without getting hopelessly sidetracked.
To their credit, everyone involved with the film can see the artistic forest for
the trees.
Indeed,
watching Passion will give viewers a robust nutshell understanding of
Degas’s significance as an artist and keen sense of the times he lived in. It
is a solid documentary in all respects, unless you happen to be an ardent
admirer of Toulouse-Lautrec, who is on the receiving end of less unflattering
comparisons. Most of us should be able to take that in stride.
On
the other hand, Passion will motivate many viewers to visit the
Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, whose extraordinary collection of Degas’s work
is featured throughout the film. Recommended for students and patrons of the
arts, Degas: Passion for Perfection screens Wednesday afternoon (6/12)
at Symphony Space.
