I recently danced my way to the 9:30am opening of the Degas exhibit in New York City at the Museum of Modern Art.

Edgar Degas: A strange New Beauty is a charming, captivating exhibit that is just the right size.

This major exhibit focuses on Edgar Degas’s (1834-1917) extraordinary and rarely seen monotypes.

This is MoMA’s first monographic exhibition of Edgar Degas, the Impressionist giant who became one of the most enduring and popular figures of 19th century art.

The exhibit features 130 monotypes, a technique invented in 17th-century Italy. 50 related works, including paintings, drawings, pastels, sketchbooks and prints are also on display.

A monotype is created by laying paper down on a metal or glass plate covered with a design in wet paint or ink, then running them through a press to produce a one-of-a-kind print. Additionally, Degas occasionally added colored pastels once the monotype dried.

Degas is best known as a painter and chronicler of the ballet yet his work as a printmaker reveals the true extent of his restless creativity.

Degas mixed techniques and shared recipes with colleagues for producing unconventional effects.

Captivated by the medium’s potential, Degas made more than 300 monotypes from the mid-1870s to the mid-1880s, and again during the early 1890s.

Degas revolutionized the style by the way he moved the printer’s ink with ease across the slick metal plate, resulting in a more liberated form.

The exhibition presents a range of subject including scenes of modern life, harshly illuminated café singers, ballet dancers onstage, backstage, or in rehearsal, life in the brothel, intimate bathing moments and landscapes.

Join me in exploring another side to Edgar Degas:

Magnifying glasses are provider to check out the artwork up close and personal.

Pirouette your way over to NYC’s Museum of Modern Art and enjoy a breathtaking exhibit.