Diaghilev's Ballets Russes

• ISBN13: 9780306808784
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The Ballets Russes was a phenomenon of the early twentieth century, permeating daily life wherever the company traveled and leaving a lasting impact on dance, theater, and the visual arts. Sergei Diaghilev, impresario from 1909 until his death in 1929, fused the most avant-garde, groundbreaking movements in dance, choreography, art, design, and costume into unique and stunning productions. The work was exciting, and always new, and it stretched the limits of the possible in art. The color, form, and material in costume and set design astonished audiences, transforming every corner of Western culture in the twentieth century.

Fashion and decor designers and visual artists in particularâ€"inclu! ding Coco Chanel, Natalia Goncharova, Mikhail Larionov, Léon Bakst, and Pablo Picassoâ€"found inspiration in the Ballets Russes. Designers and artists moved past old boundaries and created costumes and set designs for these extravagant productions, bridging the gaps between tangible and abstract artistic genres.

The Ballets Russes and the Art of Design explores these revolutionary icons and ideas, illuminating Sergei Diaghilev's profound revitalization of the arts, which continues to influence us today. Ten essays by internationally recognized experts and 200 color and black-and-white illustrationsâ€"many from private collections and never-before-publishedâ€"discuss a broad range of topics, including set and costume designs, graphic design and poster art, photographs and postcards, Diaghilev's presence in the media, and private and museum collections of Ballets Russes treasures.

While the early 20th centu! ry was r ich with creative energy, no one brought theater and dance to the forefront of culture quite like Sergei Diaghilev did with his extraordinary Ballets Russes. From 1909 to 1929, the Ballets Russes attracted the involvement of major artists, composers, and designers. Now,  this major book, published to accompany a retrospective exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, examines the origins, development, and long-term influence of the Ballets Russes and celebrates the centenary of their first appearance in 1909. 
Diaghilev's extraordinary company revolutionized ballet for all time. The book shows Diaghilev's use of avant-garde composers such as Stravinsky, dancers such as Nijinsky and Massine, and designers such as Bakst, Goncharova, Picasso, Matisse, and Chanel, and even a very young George Balanchine, all of whom helped to create true collabrations never before seen in the performing arts. works This beautiful book showcases artistic collaboration at its fin! est.

PRAISE FOR DIAGHILEV AND THE GOLDEN AGE OF THE BALLETS RUSSES

"The best accompaniment for the exhibition is the sumptuous illustrated catalog, edited by Jane Pritchard, who co-curated the exhibit along with Geoffrey Marsh. In its close-up details of costume, its black and white images of ballet and its lucid and intelligent texts, the book covers subjects that are not discussed in the museum show. This fascinating book should be on every ballet lovers’ holiday gift list."--Suzy Menkes, The New York Times

"The most newsworthy dance item in Europe during the remainder of 2010 is not occurring onstage. It’s an exhibition: “Diaghilev and the Golden Age of the Ballets Russes 1909-29” at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London (through Jan. 9, 2011). " --Alaistair Macaulay,  Sunday New York Times 

BALLETS RUSSES - DVD MovieThe Ballets Russes has engaged people for 100 years, ever since Russian-born Sergei Dia! ghilev created this dynamic avant-garde company. Diaghilev bro! ught tog ether some of the most important visual artists of the 20th century--Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, AndrŽ Derain, Robert and Sonia Delaunay, Georges Braque, Giorgio de Chirico, Natalia Gonchorova and Mikhail Larionov, and more--who worked as costume and stage designers with composers such as Igor Stravinky, choreographers such as Michel Fokine, and dancers such as Vaslav Nijinsky, infusing new life and creative energy into the performing arts of the time.

Premiering in Paris, the Ballets Russes, for the brief period of its existence (1909-1929), created exotic, extravagant, and charming theatrical spectacle but also critical discussion and technical innovation, as well as exuding glamour--and often creating scandal--wherever it appeared.

The costumes featured in this book are drawn entirely from the National Gallery of Australia's world-renowned collection of Ballets Russes costumes and ephemera. Through the costumes, drawings, programs and posters, the visual spectacle ! of the Ballets Russes is brought back into view for a contemporary audience to appreciate the revolution it was and the ongoing influence it continues to have today.

This book is a must for anyone interested in the performing arts, the intersection of art and design, and costume and fashion.In May 1909, Sergei Diaghilev astonished the world of dance with his first ballet presentations in Paris that demonstrated an unprecedented combination of vitality and grace, originality, and technical sophistication. This catalogue of over three hundred artworks related to the Saisons Russes between 1909 and 1929 is the official companion to an exhibition in Monte Carlo. The legendary productions are brought to life through stage designs, costumes, paintings, sculptures, photographs, and programs. The artwork comes from a wide variety of public and private collections, including the Fokine collection in the St. Petersburg Theatre Museum. Diaghilev’s scenic achievements are complem! ented by a number of contextual paintings, drawings, and other! artifac ts, which help to define Russia’s cultural renaissance of the first decades of the twentieth century. The documentary section of the catalog contains rich archival material, including letters, photographs, choreographic notes, and memoirs, many published here for the first time.

In the history of twentieth-century ballet, no company has had so profound and far-reaching an influence as the Ballets Russes. Under the direction of impresario extraordinaire Serge Diaghilev (1872â€"1929), the Ballets Russes radically transformed the nature of balletâ€"its subject matter, movement idiom, choreographic style, stage space, music, scenic design, costume, even the dancer's physical appearance. From 1909 to 1929, it nurtured some of the greatest choreographers in dance historyâ€"Fokine, Nijinsky, Massine, and Balanchineâ€"and created such classics as Les Sylphides, Firebird, Petrouchka, L'Après-midi d'un Faune, Les Noces, and Apollo. Diaghilev brought together some ! of the leading artists of his time, including composers Stravinsky, Debussy, and Prokofiev; artists Picasso, Braque, and Matisse, and poets Hoffmansthal and Cocteau. Diaghilev's Ballets Russes is the most authoritative history of the company ever written and the first to examine it as a totalityâ€"its art, enterprise, and audience. Combining social and cultural history with illuminating discussions of dance, drama, music, art, economics, and public reception, Lynn Garafola paints an extraordinary portrait of the company that shaped ballet into what it is today.