I love the Impressionists – who doesn’t? And with 30 Renoirs in one show, I’m in sensory heaven.
The beauty of Great French Paintings from the Clark is the obvious taste that Sterling and Francine Clark had in choosing their collection. Picking quality over quantity in an era when collectors were buying for name only, and hardly looking at what they purchased.
The exhibit is breathtaking – as is the Kimbell's usual quality of show. However there was one flaw that Lana (my co-blogger on ArtAroundTown) and I could not overlook.
The Degas Dancers in a Classroom, which I was especially looking forward to seeing, was hung at an odd angle, casting a deep shadow from the lighting across the top of the painting. This might not have been so bothersome with any other painting, but in this one two-thirds of the artist’s subject matter is at the top of the painting!
Reading about the depth of Degas' concern about the spatial relationships in his paintings – I think he would be enraged. Especially this one – for while Degas was in the middle of doing this painting, he re-stretched the canvas to gain 3 extra centimeters of space at the top and bottom.
I thought maybe it was just opening night rush and someone would have corrected it, but Lana saw it again two weeks later and the angle had not been changed.
Other than that, the exhibit is fabulous, and I will return one more time to soak in all the beauty again before it's gone. Exhibit ends June 17.
