'Ryan Gander X Edgar Degas – Pas de Deux' at Museum Beelden aan Zee, The Hague, Netherlands

10 April 2025

From 20 June 2025 - 4 January 2026, Museum Beelden aan Zee presents 'Ryan Gander X Edgar Degas – Pas de Deux' an exhibition which creates a dialogue between the work of the British visual artist Ryan Gander and that of the French painter and sculptor Edgar Degas (1834 - 1917). Since 2008, Gander has been working on a conceptual series in which he reinterprets Degas’ world-famous sculpture Petite Danseuse de Quatorze Ans (1881) and places her in a contemporary context. Gander’s sculptures liberate Degas’ fourteen-year-old dancer from her pedestal and places her in various scenarios. The exhibition in Museum Beelden aan Zee will show Gander’s series of twenty-one ballerinas for the first time, and also in direct connection with Degas’ famous sculpture.

'Ryan Gander X Edgar Degas – Pas de Deux' will be Ryan Gander’s first solo exhibition in the Netherlands. The exhibition is being made possible thanks to a collaboration with public and private collections worldwide which have lent their sculptures, as well as Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, which has kindly lent Degas’ Petite Danseuse de Quatorze Ans (1880 – 1881/1922). Museum Beelden aan Zee has commissioned Ryan Gander to make a new ballerina, Waiting for timefall, or Living in a time where everything is possible, but nothing can happen, the last work in his series.

This exhibition is curated by Brigitte Bloksma.

Find out more via Museum Beelden aan Zee.

Image: Ryan Gander, You walk into a space, any space, or, Poor little girl beaten by the game, 2010, Bronze figurine, Wooden plinth and 37 painted metal objects of varying sizes, 30 x 100 x 30 cm (ballerina, installation in variable sizes). Zabludowicz Collection © Ryan Gander, Courtesy Lisson Gallery.