The Norton Simon Museum, north of La Mirada in Pasadena, is known as one of the most remarkable private art collections ever assembled. Over a thirty-year period industrialist Norton Simon (1907–1993) amassed an astonishing collection of European art from the Renaissance to the 20th century and a stellar collection of South and Southeast Asian art spanning 2,000 years. Approximately 1,000 works from the permanent collection of 12,000 objects are on view in the Norton Simon Museum’s galleries and sculpture garden throughout the year. There are two temporary exhibition spaces within the Museum; the curatorial department mounts three to five exhibitions centered on the collection, and one special masterpiece loan, per year. One of the current temporary exhibits entitled Taking Shape: Degas as Sculptor ends on April 9th.
In the privacy of his studio, Degas modeled in wax and clay throughout his career, producing hundreds of small-scale, informal studies of horses, dancers, and bathers that were seen only by close friends and visitors. It was not until the artist’s death—one hundred years ago this year—that the extent of his sculptural production was revealed. Of the nearly 150 models retrieved from Degas’s studio, 74 of the best-preserved examples were cast in bronze and editioned, making public and permanent these transient exercises in form.
This exhibition explores the improvisational nature of Degas’s artistic practice through the Norton Simon’s collection of modèles, the first and only set of bronzes cast from the original wax and plaster statuettes.Taking Shape: Degas considers the affinities between sculpting, painting, and drawing in Degas’s oeuvre by presenting the modèle bronzes alongside related pictures from the Norton Simon’s renowned collection. Seen together, this expansive body of Degas’s works—one of the largest in the world—celebrates the artist’s boundless enthusiasm for creation, and his insatiable impulse to build form.
Source & Photo Credit: Norton Simon Museum