Degas Exhibition: Picturing Movement - Royal Academy of Arts, London

On Friday i went with a group to see the 'Degas and the Ballet: Picturing Movement' Exhibition currently on at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. Not previously knowing much about the work of Degas apart from his association with the Impressionist movement, i was introduced to a world of study on the subjects of movement and dance; a subject that Edgar Degas was fascinated with to the point of it being a continual preoccupation to try and capture within his work a sense of the dynamic; the moving image.

It is to this purpose that the exhibition focuses not only on Degas, but features work by the pioneering photographer Eadweard Muybridge, and work by Etienne-Jules Marey, including sculptures of a bird's successive movements in flight, and many photographs, and examples of photography equipment or ways of capturing an object in 3D by taking a series of studies at different angles, by photograph or drawing studies; something that Degas used as preparation for his sculpture, 'The Little Dancer'.

Not only photographs by others; this exhibition also presents Degas the photographer, showing just how enthusiastic and exciting he must have found this and other new mediums such as film. The exhibition shows amateur photographs taken by Degas of himself and his friends, in places such as his own house. A fascinating portrayal of a pioneering point in time, with the emergence of all these new technologies, and the clear inspiration they had.