Published to accompany the exhibition Edgar Degas - a strange new beauty held at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 26th March - 24th July 2016.

Includes bibliographical references.

A towering figure in 19th-century art, Degas is best known as a painter and chronicler of the ballet. In the 1870s, during an era of enthusiasm for experimental printmaking, Degas was introduced to the monotype process - drawing in black ink on a metal plate that was then run through a press, typically resulting in a single print. Captivated by the medium's potential, Degas made more than 300 monotypes during two discrete bursts of activity, from the mid-1870s to the mid-1880s, and again during the early 1890s. Taking the medium to new and radical heights, the artist abandoned the academic drawing style of his youth, inventing a new repertoire of mark-making that included wiping, scratching, abrading, finger printing and rendering via removal. Frequently, he used monotypes as a starting point from which an image could be reworked, revised, and re-crafted, often with pastel.

Specialized.