By Lucille Rollins
"The Dancer" exhibit, a collection of work by French impressionist artists Edgar Degas, Jean-Louis Forain and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec during the mid 19th century, is on display through May 11.
Be there.
The theme of the exhibit - "The Dancer" - is present in every piece. Bright pink tights, speckled orange and red tutus and elegant arabesques catch the eye on every wall. The dull gray and navy walls in the museum and immense frames emphasized the intricate and vibrant qualities existing in most of the pictures.
Impressionism was characterized by a concentration on human movement, ordinary subject matter, visible brushstrokes and the change of light quality through the canvas. The intimate and public life of the dancer in the 19th century offered artists the chance to explore these elements.
The exhibit begins with a detailed timeline of each artist's life painted across a white wall. It includes the political and social episodes that developed during the artists' lives.
Every person passing through has the option of picking up an "audioguide," a must for people with no historical art background. With the press of a button, Brian Ferriso, the museum director, explains in detail, with the help of a professional dancer, what is happening and important in the more famous pieces.
The wood floor at the Portland Art Museum squeaks as crowds cruise over it mob style. These artists may be long dead, but an overwhelming Sunday afternoon crowd gathered around their work to admire, criticize, and to ponder.
The poster child for the exhibit - Degas' "Little Dancer, Aged Fourteen" - stands no more than four feet tall and the experience is anti-climactic. The dancer's eyes are barely open, her tights wrinkled around her knees and ankles. The dirty pink and gold tulle tight around her waist is only dirty. Her hands are clasped together behind her waxy back, more square than round.
But even if the shape of her fingers are wrong in detail and the experience wasn't as excruciatingly exciting as expected, the message her stance sends is mind numbingly real: the life of a dancer is not one of a dream. It is difficult, and like her face, it is plain.
The exhibit continues with work by Forain and more Degas, whose work comprises most of the display on the first floor. For the first 20 minutes, Toulouse-Lautrec makes no appearance.
Although the famous work by the first two artists are a must see, the smaller works - usually in smaller frames - are a pleasant surprise.
Forain began his career as a caricaturist, but later enrolled at an art school to expand his abilities. Ink portraits remained his expertise, and they are the most interesting to look at.
Most of the pieces portray a colorful dancer in the back of the stage with a man, usually fat and unattractive and colorless. Although there were a considerable number of oil and charcoal works available to look at, these pieces said something about what world he saw. The women he draws are sometimes warm, but at other times they are strikingly inferior in position to the men they stand next to.
Lautrec, the youngest of the three artists, didn't grow more than five feet, although his torso grew normally. His life, which was brief due to his love of alcohol, is more interesting to study than his art.
His share of exhibition space at the Museum is modest, but also telling. Unlike Degas and Forain, who used a large amount of light and vibrant color to capture the onlooker's eye, Toulouse-Lautrec's art mostly consists of dull, flat pastels. His work largely focuses on advertisements for the Moulin Rouge and specifically Jeanne Beaudon, a headlining dancer under the stage name Jane Avril.
The hype concerning famous artists, from whatever age, can ruin the experience of seeing the pieces up close.
Ultimately, it is important to realize that liking the pieces for what they look like is not important. Exhibits are about appreciating the ideas and content present within them.
For $13 and museum-wide access, The Dancer is worth attending.
