By recasting the Little Dancer as a series of paintings and drawings I hope to challenge viewers to re-think their relationship with the remarkable ambiguities of such a well-known image.

The paintings and drawings of Little Dancer of Fourteen Years by Edgar Degas are set in a minimalist space that is counter to the prescribed space of the glass display case where the sculpture is usually exhibited. I’ve taken her off her pedestal and portrayed her on high pitched color backgrounds in order to intensify the power of the figure and to focus on her qualities of transience and permanence.

The allure of taking as a subject one of the most intriguing figures, and one of the great faces, in the history of art was compelling. In the process of making the drawings and paintings, I found the young model standing before me rather than an iconic statue. These images are based on the wax original, the plaster cast, and several of the bronzes in select museums.

Jane Sutherland

Jane Sutherland