The Monegasque Association for the Knowledge of Arts (AMCA) is preparing its first conference of events for this end of the year. Scheduled on October 7th at 6:30 pm, it will be dedicated to Edgar Degas, seen under its prism of intransigence.
We thought we knew everything (or almost) about the painter Edgar Degas, but the AMCA has many surprises with this lecture titled Degas the uncompromising, which will be led by the art historian and professor at the Institute, Serge Legat. We will start from the movement of the Impressionists of which he was one of the founding members. It is a whole part of the life of the famous artist that we revisit from his childhood when he was still called Hilaire Germain Edgar de Gas, between Paris and Naples, with his banker grandfather whom he loved dearly. We will trace his influences of Ingres whom he respected, his meeting with Edouard Manet and the Café Guerbois of Montmartre, he frequented assiduously.
Marginal and haughty
But it is also the Degas of everyday life that we will discover: the one who is marginal to the Impressionist movement while remaining faithful to their different exhibitions. That of the moralizing and haughty man, single, with scathing retorts that will surprise those who cross him. That of the uncompromising artist, anti-Dreyfusard, misogynist (who nevertheless painted women so well and who supported women artists like Suzanne Valadon) and misanthrope, anarchist, a paradoxical figure. An artist who did not leave indifferent and continues to amaze nowadays. It was well worth a conference, especially at the Théâtre des Variétés!
*Article originally published in the French edition of the Monaco Tribune.