Manet/Degas at the Met: Ballet, Race Track, Bordellos, Pathos

Earlier this week I wrote the first of a two-part review of Manet/Degas at the Met. Though the tense, one-sided relationship between the two avant-garde artists has been well plumbed over the 150 years since they met, it has never unfolded via a display of their art, in the flesh, on Fifth Avenue. It’s a feast.

I wrote primarily about the first half of the exhibition and the curse of the two-artist, “compare and contrast” exhibition, which is in fashion, and bad fashion it almost always becomes. The two are often big names, such as Picasso and Calder, to give a good example of a bad show, but one, in this case Picasso, outclasses the other in almost all respects.

About the Author

Brian T. Allen

Brian T. Allen is National Review’s art critic.

Earlier this week I wrote the first of a two-part review of Manet/Degas at the Met. Though the tense, one-sided relationship between the two avant-garde artists has been well plumbed over the 150 years since they met, it has never unfolded via a display of their art, in the flesh, on Fifth Avenue. It’s a feast.

I wrote primarily about the first half of the exhibition and the curse of the two-artist, “compare and contrast” exhibition, which is in fashion, and bad fashion it almost always becomes. The two are often big names, such as Picasso and Calder, to give a good example of a bad show, but one, in this case Picasso, outclasses the other in almost all respects.