Degas’ Portrait of Estelle Musson Degas, 1872.
Patron's Circle Lecture 2016: Darcy Grimaldo Grigsby
"Creole Degas"
Lecture Description:
When Edgar Degas traveled across the sea to visit his Creole family in New Orleans in 1872, he continually expressed his anxiety about his sight and his difficulty apprehending or painting the black persons so novel to him. The artist attempted to justify his decision not to depict this foreign place so pervaded by a boldly visible racial difference because of the brevity of his visit: “The black world, I have not the time to explore it; there are some real treasures as regards drawing and color in these forests of ebony.” The unfamiliarity of this spectacle made Degas think about other French artists who might have attempted to meet such a challenge, for instance Manet. This talk analyzes the intersection of sight, blindness, race and Creole identity in the writings and art of Degas during this period in New Orleans and return to Paris.
Bio:
Darcy Grimaldo Grigsby is the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Distinguished Professor in the Arts and Humanities at University of California, Berkeley. She was born in the Panama Canal Zone and specializes in 18th- through early 20th-century French and American art and visual and material culture, particularly in relation to the politics of race, slavery, and colonialism. She is the author of three books: Extremities: Painting Empire in Post-Revolutionary France (2002); Colossal: Engineering the Suez Canal, Statue of Liberty, Eiffel Tower and Panama Canal. Transcontinental Ambition in France and the United States in the Long Nineteenth Century (2012); and Enduring Truths: Sojourner’s Shadows and Sub-stance (University of Chicago Press, 2015). She also curated Sojourner Truth, Photography and the Fight Against Slavery, an exhibition of her collection of civil war photographs given to the Berkeley Art Museum (July 27-October 23, 2016). Her current book-in-progress, Creole Looking: Portraying France’s Foreign Relations in the Nineteenth Century(Penn State University Press) examines France’s relationship to the Caribbean and Americas.
Event Details and Registration:
Please note that this will take place on Dec. 8, 2016.
