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Lot Essay
Alexandra Exter, a formidable 'Amazon of the Avant-garde', was commissioned by the director Alexander Tairov to create the stage and costume designs for his 1921 production of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Known for her inventive and uncompromising attitude towards design, Exter was always at the forefront of artistic development yet never restricted by one defining style or movement, as the artist A. V. Grishchenko commented, '...For every new season in Art, Madame Exter made a fashionable hat from Impressionism, Cubism and Futurism.'
Having embarked on the project in 1918, Exter constructed a number of scale models which enabled her to physically realise her initial sketches. For Exter, it was not only form and silhouette which were of great importance, but also the texture and properties of the materials used. To increase the impact of her designs, Exter juxtaposed the opaque with the transparent and the shining with the dull in the same way as she synthesized the forces of Cubism, Constructivism and Futurism. The intensity of the reds, oranges and yellows which enflame the costume design for Juliet are testament to Exter's evocative use of colour, which was further enhanced by a set comprising several bridges, rope ladders, mirrors and other reflective surfaces.
First performed on 17 May 1921 at the Kamerny Theatre, Moscow, this production of Romeo and Juliet incorporated some of the most striking and daring costume designs of the period. As the main exponent of 'Synthetic Theatre', Tairov embraced Exter's challenging work as he believed that theatre was an art in itself and that a production should not be subservient to the text. As such, although Tairov's Romeo and Juliet was not a commercial success, Exter's sculptural designs secured the production's enduring importance to modern theatre design.
It was from Tairov's wife, Alisa Koonen, the actress who played Juliet in the original production, that the well-known collector of Russian avant-garde art, George Costakis, acquired the present work circa 1962. The significance of the Costakis Collection is described by Angelica Rudenstine, in her preface to the catalogue for its 1981 exhibition: The George Costakis Collection of Russian and Soviet art of the avant-garde [...] was assembled in Moscow over a period of thirty years. By the time Costakis left his Moscow home in 1977 to settle in Athens, his collection had become the single most comprehensive 'museum' of such art in the world.
As the Soviet art historian Vasilii Rakitin has testified, the mere existence of such a collection played a commanding role in the artistic life of Moscow, particularly during the 1960's. In the Soviet Union, the collection served as a visible and living documentation of an otherwise buried past; it stimulated creativity and gave courage to innumerable contemporary soviet artists who continuously visited the Costakis home.
When Costakis left Moscow, he donated the greater part of his holdings to the Tretyakov Gallery. Under his supervision, photographs were made of one hundred twenty-two of the works in this gift, but not of the remainder. Thus, the Tretyakov works published [...] represent only a selection from the full Costakis collection held by the museum. (A. Rudenstine, ed. The George Costakis Collection: Russian Avant-Garde Art, London, 1981, p. 9).
Since the landmark sale of the Costakis Collection in 1990, where the present costume design was acquired, opportunities to acquire such high-calibre works sharing this impeccable provenance are extremely rare.
Having embarked on the project in 1918, Exter constructed a number of scale models which enabled her to physically realise her initial sketches. For Exter, it was not only form and silhouette which were of great importance, but also the texture and properties of the materials used. To increase the impact of her designs, Exter juxtaposed the opaque with the transparent and the shining with the dull in the same way as she synthesized the forces of Cubism, Constructivism and Futurism. The intensity of the reds, oranges and yellows which enflame the costume design for Juliet are testament to Exter's evocative use of colour, which was further enhanced by a set comprising several bridges, rope ladders, mirrors and other reflective surfaces.
First performed on 17 May 1921 at the Kamerny Theatre, Moscow, this production of Romeo and Juliet incorporated some of the most striking and daring costume designs of the period. As the main exponent of 'Synthetic Theatre', Tairov embraced Exter's challenging work as he believed that theatre was an art in itself and that a production should not be subservient to the text. As such, although Tairov's Romeo and Juliet was not a commercial success, Exter's sculptural designs secured the production's enduring importance to modern theatre design.
It was from Tairov's wife, Alisa Koonen, the actress who played Juliet in the original production, that the well-known collector of Russian avant-garde art, George Costakis, acquired the present work circa 1962. The significance of the Costakis Collection is described by Angelica Rudenstine, in her preface to the catalogue for its 1981 exhibition: The George Costakis Collection of Russian and Soviet art of the avant-garde [...] was assembled in Moscow over a period of thirty years. By the time Costakis left his Moscow home in 1977 to settle in Athens, his collection had become the single most comprehensive 'museum' of such art in the world.
As the Soviet art historian Vasilii Rakitin has testified, the mere existence of such a collection played a commanding role in the artistic life of Moscow, particularly during the 1960's. In the Soviet Union, the collection served as a visible and living documentation of an otherwise buried past; it stimulated creativity and gave courage to innumerable contemporary soviet artists who continuously visited the Costakis home.
When Costakis left Moscow, he donated the greater part of his holdings to the Tretyakov Gallery. Under his supervision, photographs were made of one hundred twenty-two of the works in this gift, but not of the remainder. Thus, the Tretyakov works published [...] represent only a selection from the full Costakis collection held by the museum. (A. Rudenstine, ed. The George Costakis Collection: Russian Avant-Garde Art, London, 1981, p. 9).
Since the landmark sale of the Costakis Collection in 1990, where the present costume design was acquired, opportunities to acquire such high-calibre works sharing this impeccable provenance are extremely rare.