Pavel Tchelitchew

Watercolor, ink and collage on board. The surface has recently been dry cleaned by a professional paper restorer. Patches have also been added to repair tears on the left edge and a small triangular section has been inserted on the left edge where loss and damage had occured. The work was then supported with acid free rag paper for stability and to prevent further damage. The surface has some minor stains, including several spots above the head of the figure on the far left, and a vertical stain (perhaps original) running along right edge. There are some minor creases and tears to the collage paper. Held under glass and in a wood frame. Unexamined out of frame.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

The legendary Paper Ball of 1936, or Le Cirque des Chiffonniers, was held on the last evening of the Hartford Festival and sponsored by the Friends and Enemies of Modern Music and the Wadsworth Atheneum. The festival included multiple innovative forms of art, including performances of modern music by composers such as Stravinsky and Satie, artwork by Calder, and the ballet "Magic" by Balanchine, with set designs by Tchelitchew.

The Ball itself was held in the Avery Memorial Annex, built in the traditional modernist Bauhaus style and transformed into a magical, otherworldly space by Tchelitchew. The artist converted it into what Chick Austin, the director of the museum, described as "...a sort of newspaper heaven of incredible delicacy, shimmering with extraordinary color" (David Leddick, Intimate Companions: A Triography of George Platt Lynes, painter Paul Cadmus, and critic Lincoln Kirstein, 92). The walls were covered in newspaper and the opera boxes were painted. Guests arrived in elaborate costumes made entirely out of paper.

"Each guest was grandly announced as he or she swept into the hall and swirled around the grand baroque fountain in the center. Many of the guests had come on a special train from New York. The beautiful young actress Ruth Ford was borne in on a palanquin as an Indian princess, her bearers including her brother Charles Henri Ford and his pal, the writer Parker Tyler. They were dressed in paper cowboy costumes, and later in the evening, it is claimed, they threw themselves into the fountain, where their costumes disintegrated" (Ibid., 146).