Overview

Why collect Russian stage designs? Why write about them? These questions are not rhetorical or idly academic. They have real historical, intellectual, and commercial relevance. Answers may vary, but surely a primary response must be that, quite simply, Russian stage designs are immensely pleasing to the eye. They vibrate, and scintillate with colour, texture, movement. Furthermore, through their daring inventions, Russian artists of the first thirty years of the 20th century transformed, profoundly and permanently, our perception of stage design - and hence of the theatre. They belonged to an extraordinarily creative generation of impresarios, dancers, actors, patrons, and critics who inspired or at least made a major contribution to the international renaissance of the art of the stage, and in particular areas, e.g. the teaching and performing of ballet, their influence is still present today. However, in spite of the many published commentaries on the Russian theatre, in spite of the autobiographies and biographies of its leading representatives, and in spite of the scholarly appreciations of its various components (ballet, drama, opera), the subject of stage design in Russia has yet to be explored in all its manifestations. The Lobanov-Rostovsky collection of stage designs and its catalogue raisonne document the history of modern Russian art (Russian Modernism), one of the most important interludes within the cultural renaissance of the early 20th century. The catalogue registers the more than one thousand items in the collection with full curatorial details, artists biographies and scholarly commentary regarding the set and costume designs, portraits and promotional materials represented in the collection. The many artists include celebrities such as Bakst, Benois, Goncharova, Larionov, Malevich, Popova, Rodchenko, and Tatlin as well as less familiar names such as Anisfeld, Lissim, Remisoff, and Soudeikine. Unique in size, scope, and composition, the collection is unequalled. Its catalogue, therefore, serves as a rich resource for advanced research to scholars, both Western and Russian, interested in the history of modern Russian culture. SELLING POINTS: .A unique and celebrated collection, that charts the most important interludes within the Russian cultural renaissance of the early 20th Century .Features an introduction by top academics in the field .Subjects include: set and costume designs, portraits and promotional material such as posters .Reproduces more than one thousand entries, including artist biographies and scholarly details .Includes works by important artists such as Benois, Goncharova, Larionov, Popova, Rodchenko, and Tatlin, as well as their famous and lesser-known contemporaries ILLUSTRATIONS: 243 colour & 14 b/w

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9781851496884

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Anyone interested in the theater will enjoy leafing through this book, but the text also makes it a resource for specialists in the history of Russian stage design. -CHOICE

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