Festival Girl: Ballet Russes: The Art Of Costume

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Ballet Russes: The Art Of Costume | National Gallery of Australia

Although most of the events I describe are baseed in Sydney, I really wanted to shed some light on The Ballets Russes: the art of costume, that is currently featured at the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra.

One of the world’s richest collections of costumes from the famed Ballets Russes resides at the National Gallery of Australia and will be on display in December 2010 in this major exhibition. Through 140 costumes from 34 productions from 1909 to 1939, the vivid and innovative dance design of the early 20th century will be brought to life on the 100th anniversary of the Ballets Russes. The Ballets Russes: the art of costume includes costumes by Natalia Goncharova, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, André Derain, Georges Braque, André Masson and Giorgio de Chirico.

The vivid and innovative dance design of the early 20th century is brought to life through 150 costumes and accessories from 34 productions from 1909 to 1939; one third of the costumes have not been seen since they were last worn on stage. The exhibition also features photographs, film, music, artists’ drawings and more.

The Ballets Russes productions had been conceived in the context of powerful and emotional artistic collaboration, and their costumes command attention as persuasive works of art in their own right, long after they ceased to be worn on stage.

Bakst re-imagined the richness of Russian folklore and 18th-century France;new forms of music built around atonalism and primitive rhythms. Russian designers Léon Bakst and Alexandre Benois provided the sumptuous and exotic spectacle of the first performances while other artists of the emerging Russian and European avant-garde joined Diaghilev—among them, Michel Larionov, Natalia Goncharova, Georges Braque, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Giorgio de Chirico, André Derain, Robert and Sonia Delaunay and Pavel Tchelitchev.

All are shown in the dreamlike landscape of this exhibition, allowing us to experience the vision and passion of Diaghilev and his designers, dancers, collaborators and successors as they interpreted the great romantic stories and legends of history against the framework of the moral contradictions of the emerging 20th century. Join us in celebrating the centenary of the Ballets Russes and to see how its electrifying spirit continues for our time and place.