calendario eventi  :: 

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24/1/2008

Two exhibitions

Boca Raton Museum of Art, Boca Raton

Degas in Bronze: The Complete Sculptures

One of the most important artists of the 19th century, the French painter and sculptor Degas spent his entire life investigating the figure in motion through countless studies of ballerinas, racehorses, and bathers. Though he worked relentlessly on small composite sculptures privately, he only exhibited one completed sculpture during his lifetime.

It was not until after his death in 1917, that the extent of Degas's work in sculpture was revealed when the contents of his studio were inventoried. More than 150 pieces of sculpture were found, modeled in wax and clay. The question of their preservation and ultimate fate was unresolved at the time of the artist's death. Nevertheless, by 1918, Degas's heirs had decided to authorize a series of bronze casts, or editions, to be made from 73 of the wax and clay figures, by master foundry man Albino Palazzolo at the Paris foundry of A.-A. Hébrard et Cie.

Degas in Bronze offers a rare opportunity to view these 73 sculptures, cast in bronze from Degas's original composite and wax models. The collection of 73 sculptures in Degas In Bronze is one of only four vintage sets of the bronzes held in museums worldwide. The Museum's exhibition presents the vintage set now owned by the Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand, São Paulo, Brasil. Other vintage sets of the 73 works are in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Musée d'Orsay in Paris; and the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen. the Rarely are all 73 bronzes exhibited together, but when they are, they reveal in their sheer complexity of variations how Degas approached and resolved challenges in his work, and the genius of his solutions.

Degas's primary interest as an artist was experimentation with movement - the ability to capture the ephemeral gesture, the twist of a figure, the gallop of a horse, the disciplined balance of a dancer, the awkward stretch of a bather. Working in three-dimensional sculpture provided the perfect vehicle for visualizing the reality of form, mass, balance and movement. Because many of Degas's sculptures can be related to similar subjects found in the artist's better-known paintings and pastels, the Museum's exhibition is augmented by a selection of Degas drawings and pastels on loan from museum and private collections to provide further insight into the artist's work and his experimental attitude toward movement and form.

Degas in Bronze explores the artist's perceptive analysis of movement, while presenting works of exhilarating beauty, stimulating ideas, and compelling discoveries about the history and fabrication of Degas's sculpture. A pioneering artist in so many respects, Degas set the stage for later developments in modern art. Degas in Bronze: The Complete Sculptures, one of the finest international exhibitions ever organized about the work of the French Impressionist Edgar Degas, stands as a tribute to this artist's remarkably modern vision.

Degas in Bronze: The Complete Sculptures is organized by International Arts. Curated by Joseph S. Czestochowski. From the collections of the Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand in São Paulo, Brasil. The Boca Raton Museum of Art's presentation of Degas in Bronze is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and Humanities, the Estate of Simone Stakolt Tolksdorf, an anonymous Patron of the Arts, The City of Boca Raton, and The Bernard and Mary Jane Pollack Foundation.

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Tiffany Studios: The Holtzman Collection

No American designer was more closely linked with Art Nouveau than Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848-1933), whose luminous glass designs wedded technical innovations and superb craftsmanship with the highest artistry infusing everyday objects with beauty derived from nature. Louis Comfort Tiffany, son of Tiffany and Company co-founder Charles L. Tiffany, formed the Tiffany Glass Company in 1885. Throughout a 40-year career, he forged a unique style that combined superb craftsmanship with a love of natural forms and brilliant color.

This exhibition presents a selection of 50 extraordinary Tiffany works from the Mr. and Mrs. Seymour Holtzman Collection, and features exquisite Tiffany lamps, favrile glassware, candlesticks, desk sets, and other works in glass and metal, never before publicly exhibited. Evelyn and Seymour Holtzman began collecting Tiffany in 1984, when they bought their first Tiffany lamp - a floor lamp in the Snowball pattern - for their library. The Holtzman's passionate collecting of all things Tiffany has resulted in one of the most extensive privately held Tiffany collections in the world.

Tiffany Studios: The Holtzman Collection has been curated by Alastair Duncan, the world's foremost authority on Tiffany glass and author of numerous books on the decorative arts of the 19th and 20th centuries. A fully-illustrated exhibition catalogue authored by Mr. Duncan will present the entire Holtzman Collection in print for the first time and will be available in print for the first time.

Tiffany Studios: The Holtzman Collection is curated by Alastair Duncan, the world's foremost authority on Tiffany.

Boca Raton Museum of Art
501 Plaza Real (Mizner Park) - Boca Raton

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