Ballets Russes: The Art of Costume

Description

THE BALLETS RUSSES has engaged people for 100 years, ever since Russian-born Sergei Diaghilev created this dynamic avant-garde company. Diaghilev brought together some of the most important visual artists of the 20th century-Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Andre Derain, Robert and Sonia Delaunay, Georges Braque, Giorgio de Chirico, Leon Bakst, Natalia Goncharova and Mikhail Larionov and more-who worked as costume and stage designers with composers such as Igor Stravinsky, choreographers such as Michel Fokine and dancers such as Vaslav Nijinsky, infusing new life and creative energy into the performing arts of the time. 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.

It is a stunning work, thoroughly researched and documented, and should be in any academic library supporting the study of costume, theater, dance, or 20th-century art. Summing up: Highly recommended. -- (01/01/2012)