Artistic Impressions Degas’ World（在线收听）

Here Degas shows a couple in a café staring out ¹⁾disconsolately, with a glass of the ²⁾deadly green ³⁾absinthe on the table in front of the woman. Degas’ friend Monet painted a dandish male absinthe drinker just over a decade before. But Degas in many ways paints a more ⁴⁾graphic picture which doesn’t ⁵⁾glamorize either the café itself or the drink, which was ⁶⁾deemed to be ⁷⁾addictive and ⁸⁾lethal enough to be banned by the end of the century. Instead he paints a sympathetic portrait of a tough, dreary world from which the only escape is drink. The work provoked a strong reaction when it was first shown at the second ⁹⁾impressionist exhibition in 1876. But its notoriety helped Degas to sell the work to an English collector called Captain Hill from Brighton.

Degas remained interested in public spectacle as well as private and produced this dramatic image of the acrobat Miss Lala, a ¹⁰⁾sensation is Paris in 1879 when she performed at the ¹¹⁾circus Fernando. Her specialties included the ¹²⁾trapeze, and, most ¹³⁾spectacularly of all, being hauled up to the roof by her teeth in a painting which you could say has a real bite. It’s an image which captures the sense of physical 14)exertion as well as perfect ¹⁵⁾poise, and makes us look up at this almost angel-like figure with a feeling of ¹⁶⁾precariousness and ¹⁷⁾awe as if we’re seated in the circus room below.

In this painting, color takes over in a ¹⁸⁾blazing symphony of reds which ¹⁹⁾amplify the ²⁰⁾dynamic image of the woman having her hair combed in a way that is almost savage. She ²¹⁾clutches at her head to stop the maid from pulling it out by the roots. The whole ²²⁾thrust of the painting follows the line of that ²³⁾tugging action from bottom left to top right, and in what might otherwise be a ²⁴⁾tweed image of booed wild ²⁵⁾vanity. Degas gives us an almost uncomfortable image of energy.

The bathers were the final stage Degas’ chronicling of the various experiences of contemporary women almost to the point of ²⁶⁾obsession with every ²⁷⁾conceivable aspect of their lives charted when used as a ²⁸⁾vehicle for his exploration of different artist media. In the 1890s, as his sight got worse, his images of women became even more ²⁹⁾radical. Depicted in ever more closer, ³⁰⁾cropped, and increasingly abstracted forms. In this bold picture, the forms are ³¹⁾layered, with the figures visible in the distance, but the motion of the picture is pushing forward into our faces amplified by the skins of ³²⁾pastel ³³⁾pigment creating a pattern of ³⁴⁾kaleidoscopic color. It’s a fitting finale from the dance ³⁵⁾maestro Degas, the work which makes you dizzy just looking at it ³⁶⁾animated in style and subject matter and as one artistorian observed, elevating pastel painting to a major art form.

     Ironically, in his late use of bold simplified colors with a degree of abandon, Degas came closest to the concerns of mainstream impressionism. But he also anticipated a more expressionistic approach to art, which flourished in the next century. Above all, though it was his line work, sense of experimentation, coupled with a complex and often dark vision of contemporary life, which fascinated artists from Picasso onwards.  CE

07、德加印象

在这张画中，德加画了咖啡馆里一对目光愁闷的情侣，女子面前的桌上放着一杯惨绿的苦艾酒。十年前，德加的朋友莫奈画过一个饮苦艾酒的纨绔子弟。可是从多个角度来看，德加的画更加生动鲜明，既没有美化咖啡馆也没有美化苦艾酒，后者在19世纪末被认为是会上瘾致命的禁物。与此相反，他画了引人同情的一张画，在艰难而沉闷的世界里，酒成了唯一的逃避。这张画初次在1876年第二届印象派画展上展出，就引起了强烈反响。可是它背负的恶名使德加只好把画卖给了来自布莱顿的英国收藏家希尔上尉。

德加对公众和私人演出都很感兴趣，所以给杂技演员拉拉画出了这张生动的画像，拉拉1879年随费南多马戏团在巴黎演出，非常轰动。她的特长是打秋千，其中最惊人的是她咬紧牙被吊到屋顶，从画中你能看到咬得很紧。这张画捕捉到了身体力度感以及完美的平衡，使我们从仰头的角度看到人物，感受到不稳与畏惧，仿佛我们就是坐在底下的马戏团房间里似的。

这张画中，颜色编织出激烈的红色交响曲，几近暴力的梳头动作使画面的动感得到突出。女子抓住头以防头发给侍女连根拔出。画面的力度顺着拖头发的方向由左下朝右上方走，如果用其他表现方式则会造成画面结构松散，空白过多而不讨好。德加向我们展现了一股几乎是令人不舒服的力量。

入浴者常出现在德加最后几年的画中，他为当时各类女性作画，入木三分地表现出她们生活中所有可想到的方面，并借此来探索不同的艺术表现手法。在19世纪90年代，德加的视力每况愈下，他画中的女子也愈显极端。特写更多，更突出，更抽象。这张画的手法大胆，很有层次感，能看得到远处的人物，但粉彩创造出万花筒般的画面效果，突出了人物肌肤，使画面呼之欲出。这张画是艺术大师德加的画笔下的终场之舞，其风格与题材都很活泼，令观者目不暇接，从艺术角度来看，它将粉笔绘画提升到主流艺术中。

具有讽刺意味的是，德加后来大胆摒弃一些颜色，简化了色调，非常接近印象主义主流派。但他也先一步用出了较具表现主义的艺术画法，表现主义在下二十世纪中相当盛行。尽管他的代表作中带有实验感，兼表现了当时生活中复杂的阴暗面，但重要的是德加的画给后来的毕加索等画家提供了丰富的灵感。 CE