Overview
THE BASICS
Degas to Dalí is a ticketed show - take a look at our
Tickets page for
information on how to buy tickets.
In order to ensure you have enough time to enjoy the works on
show, please note that last entry to Degas to Dalí is at
4pm each day.
Take advantage of our late nights to view Degas to
Dalí. The Gallery will be open 10am - 8pm every Tuesday from 3
April, with last entry at 7pm.
When you're viewing the exhibition, please:
- keep cameras and smartphones in your pockets - special
conditions apply to Degas to Dalí meaning that filming and
photography is not allowed
- deposit backpacks, large bags and umbrellas in the cloakroom
and we'll take care of them
- take a close look, but resist the temptation to touch
- note that food and drink are not permitted in the Gallery, and
that Degas to Dalí is a smoke-free area, as are all our
spaces
Check out our FAQs
if you have more questions about this exhibition, or see our Location
and Access page for info on getting to the Gallery. And if
you're in need of refreshment, our café has a special Degas to
Dalí menu - find out more here.
FUN FOR FAMILIES
Entry for children under 14 is now FREE for the duration
of the exhibition.
Planning to visit Degas to Dalí as a family? Already
visited and inspired by what you saw? Our Learning Programmes team
have come up with some ideas that will warm you up for an encounter
with the art or give you a chance to follow-up on your visit.
Download our
family guide here.
We've also created an activity sheet full of fun challenges,
which you can bring with you and use to spark ideas and inspiration
while you're viewing the exhibition. Download the
activity sheet here.
Leave the history books behind: see original artworks by
Picasso, Monet, Van Gogh, Warhol and more in this not-to-be-missed
story of modern art. Grab the kids, aunties and best mates and
experience 79 artworks, 62 artists and one great family
activity.
EXHIBITION OVERVIEW
Degas to Dalí brings together 79 artworks by 62
artists. When you arrive, you'll receive a free brochure packed
with information to help you get the most out of your visit. Here's
a brief overview of what you can find in each room - take a look at
the floorplan on this page to find your way around.
Room 1: Early influences and the Impressionists
Degas to Dalí starts in the mid-1800s at the moment
when art began its revolutionary journey from the traditional to
the modern. Many of the works in this room are Impressionist in
style, and result from artists leaving their studios and textbooks
behind to paint out of doors and observe the changing effects of
light.
But it wasn't only to nature that these artists looked.
Captivated by the Parisian cafés and concert halls, painters found
the perfect setting to record the frenetic energy of contemporary
urban life.
Room 2: Painters of modern life, Cubism and Vorticism
After the invention of photography in the 1830s, artists like
Vincent van Gogh no longer saw the point of capturing the world as
the eye sees it. Instead they focused on expressing the essence of
a subject.
This room features important Cubist paintings by Georges Braque,
Jacques Lipchitz and Fernand Léger. See the beginnings of
abstraction in the letters, triangles and rectangles scattered
across the canvas of Braque's The Candlestick, a painting
which typifies early Cubism.
Room 3: Scottish Colourists
In this room you'll see how British artists adopted the fresh
approaches they observed in the art of their French counterparts.
The bold palette of the Fauves, or 'wild beasts', who got their
name as a result of their riotous use of colour, found its way onto
Scottish canvases, seen here in the paintings of George Hunter, S J
Peploe and more.
Room 4: Expressionists, Dada and Surrealism
After witnessing the massive upheavals of two World Wars and the
Great Depression that fell between them, artists turned their
attention to the human condition and the society that shaped it.
Psychological drama is the underlying theme of many of the
Expressionist and Surrealist works in this room.
Room 5: Pop, Op and beyond
Big paintings with imagery lifted from glossy advertising
reflect postwar America, flooded with mass-produced goods and the
visual messages that helped sell them. Andy Warhol, Pop art's most
famous exponent, once commented, 'If you want to know all about
Andy Warhol, just look at the surface of my paintings and films and
me, and there I am. There's nothing behind it.'
Room 6: Full circle
Travel full circle to room 6, where artists once again turn
their attention to the real world and city life. While Lucian Freud
preferred the tranquillity of his studio to the city's noisy
streets, L S Lowry found inspiration in his own isolation in
industrial Northern England. Similarly drawing on his surroundings,
Stanley Spencer used the his local neighbourhood as the unlikely
backdrop for dramatic Biblical scenes. This academic subject
matter, which the Impressionists turned their backs on, is united
with the real world as artists continued to reinvent, re-visualise
and revolutionise.