- 386
Alexandra Exter
Estimate
300,000 - 400,000 USD
bidding is closed
Description
- Alexandra Exter
- Costume Design for Romeo from Romeo and Juliet, 1920
- signed and dedicated To my dear and beloved friend-tyrant (Alexander Tairov) in Cyrillic, dated 1920 and inscribed 5/XI (lower right); inscribed Alexandra Exter and in Cyrillic (on the reverse)
mixed media on board
- 21 1/4 by 13 3/4 in.
- 54 by 34.9 cm
Provenance
Alisa Koonen, Moscow
N. S. Sukhotsky, Moscow
A. A. Chizhov, Moscow
Acquired by the present owner directly from the above
N. S. Sukhotsky, Moscow
A. A. Chizhov, Moscow
Acquired by the present owner directly from the above
Catalogue Note
Exter became especially known for her theater designs. In 1916, Alexander Tairov invited Exter, who had never before worked in the theater, to design sets for Innokentii Annensky's play Famira Kifared. Tairov was an experimental director in search of a kinetic and architectonic, rather than a literary or illustrative, theatrical experience. At the Kamerny (Chamber) Theater that he founded in Moscow in 1914, primary attention was paid to the actor's technique, and movement was considered a central component of the overall stage design.
As an artist-innovator, Exter experimented greatly in the medium of painting; the theater offered her new horizons in form, color, and movement. It was in Famira Kifared that the old conventions were replaced by a kinetic resolution in which the actors and the scenery played equal roles. In this production, Exter destroyed the old realistic scenic formulas, replacing them with a contemporary vision of the ancient bacchanals. The foyer, vestibule, and stairs were covered with Exter's nonobjective painting; the stage portal and curtain were also executed according to her sketches.
Exter's success with Famira Kifared and, shortly thereafter, the Chamber Theater's production of Salomé led to the artist's subsequent collaboration with Tairov in the post-Revolutionary period. Her third and last stage design work for the Chamber Theater was for Tairov's presentation of Romeo and Juliet (1921). In this production, Tairov and Exter sought to demonstrate the inescapability of fate; the Cubist stylization underscored the degree to which the tragedy's main characters were subject to their predetermined destiny. In the words of the well-known critic Abram Efros, "the most cubist Cubism in the most baroque Baroque" reigned on stage.
Exter's costumes for Romeo and Juliet embody her application of a Cubo-Futurist conception. Treated as large-scale counter-reliefs in motion, the costumes for the production were composed of various materials, obliging the actors to execute complicated, inconvenient rotations, often swiftly. The costume for Romeo is an important example of Exter's dynamic interpretation of the movement of planes. In addition to balancing colored masses and creating elaborate draperies, Exter also focused on juxtaposing fabrics of contrasting qualities: opaque and transparent, shiny and dull.
The reception of Romeo and Juliet was rather controversial. Abram Efros went so far as to say that "We are witnessing the murder of Shakespeare." Tairov himself acknowledged the failure; the space of the stage was virtually strangled amid dense volumes, while the actors' rigid costumes made it difficult for them to move onstage.
As an artist-innovator, Exter experimented greatly in the medium of painting; the theater offered her new horizons in form, color, and movement. It was in Famira Kifared that the old conventions were replaced by a kinetic resolution in which the actors and the scenery played equal roles. In this production, Exter destroyed the old realistic scenic formulas, replacing them with a contemporary vision of the ancient bacchanals. The foyer, vestibule, and stairs were covered with Exter's nonobjective painting; the stage portal and curtain were also executed according to her sketches.
Exter's success with Famira Kifared and, shortly thereafter, the Chamber Theater's production of Salomé led to the artist's subsequent collaboration with Tairov in the post-Revolutionary period. Her third and last stage design work for the Chamber Theater was for Tairov's presentation of Romeo and Juliet (1921). In this production, Tairov and Exter sought to demonstrate the inescapability of fate; the Cubist stylization underscored the degree to which the tragedy's main characters were subject to their predetermined destiny. In the words of the well-known critic Abram Efros, "the most cubist Cubism in the most baroque Baroque" reigned on stage.
Exter's costumes for Romeo and Juliet embody her application of a Cubo-Futurist conception. Treated as large-scale counter-reliefs in motion, the costumes for the production were composed of various materials, obliging the actors to execute complicated, inconvenient rotations, often swiftly. The costume for Romeo is an important example of Exter's dynamic interpretation of the movement of planes. In addition to balancing colored masses and creating elaborate draperies, Exter also focused on juxtaposing fabrics of contrasting qualities: opaque and transparent, shiny and dull.
The reception of Romeo and Juliet was rather controversial. Abram Efros went so far as to say that "We are witnessing the murder of Shakespeare." Tairov himself acknowledged the failure; the space of the stage was virtually strangled amid dense volumes, while the actors' rigid costumes made it difficult for them to move onstage.