Dissecting Degas

“At the Getty, It’s Degas in the Abstract” [April 3] by Suzanne Muchnic puzzled me. Although the Getty’s acting director describes the painting as “extremely modern” and the headline implies “The Milliners” is an abstract painting, it is neither modern nor abstract; it is simply unfinished. Degas was not a modern or an abstract artist. He was an Impressionist painter. His practice concerning unfinished works is well known by art historians. He did not sign them. For example, he rarely signed a drawing. He did not consider them completed works.

Ron Winokur

Los Angeles

Winokur is a local art dealer and appraiser who was previously the assistant curator of European art at the Detroit Institute of Arts, and the author of several works of art research.