Obsessional art

Anyone going to this exhibition expecting to see the traditionally delightful paintings of Edgar Degas (1834-1917) that we have come to know and love will be startled by the cognitive dissonance created on travelling through the six themed exhibition rooms. The carefully constructed, detailed, and narrative paintings that made up his work during the first 50 years of his life (such as Beach Scene, 1868-77, and Miss La La at the Cirque Fernando, 1879) have evolved into something simpler yet more powerful and disturbing. The sharply defined details have been replaced with aggressive use of oil and pastel, where form and colour take precedence over content. It is the later phase …