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Paintings, sculptures, costumes, stage designs, drawings and photographs tell of the extraordinary magical fusions between dance and art
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The birth of dance as an artistic expression of the avant-garde and its relations with the visual arts of the twentieth century is explored in this catalogue for the new exhibition at the Mart, the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Trent and Rovereto.
Over one thousand works including paintings, sculptures, costumes, stage designs, drawings and photographs tell of the extraordinary magical fusions between dance and art in a journey that originates from the masterpieces of the early twentieth century and runs right up to the most recent currents of contemporary art.
Starting from those artists who portrayed the theatre, such as Edgar Degas and Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, La Danza delle Avanguardie presents the works created by Matisse, Gontcharova, Balla and Depero for Sergej Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, the projects developed during the twenties by Giorgio de Chirico and Fernand Léger for the Ballets Suédois, and those of Alexandra Exter, Kasimir Malevich and El Lissizky for Russian theatres. Among the high points of the exhibition are the stage designs and costumes of Pablo Picasso, and revolutionary inventions of the avant-garde such as the works that Fernand Léger designed for La Création du monde.
We then come to Joan Miró’s creations for Serge Lifar during the thirties, the theatrical innovations of Isamu Noguchi for Martha Graham in the forties, Robert Rauschenberg’s experimentations for Merce Cunningham, and those of Keith Haring for several different America companies, finally we reach the works of David Salle and Jeff Koons for Karole Armitage, Giulio Paolini for Davide Bombana, Grazia Toderi for Virgilio Sieni, and the works of Jan Fabre, an artist and contemporary choreographer.
Edited by Gabriella Belli and Elisa Guzzo Vaccarino, this volume sets out to underline the great changes that came about in theatre and artistic research in the course of over a century; the most important artists of the age were transformed into choreographers and stage designers, transferring new creative values onto the stage. This collaboration with the experiments of the avant-garde was both important and fruitful for theatre; the relationship between the visual and plastic arts on the one hand and ballet on the other was an expressive two-way street: painters, stylists and architects played a direct role within theatrical representation.
The theme of the relationship between dance and theatre on the one hand and the artistic avant-garde of the twentieth century on the other is explored in the written contributions of Gabriella Belli, Elisa Guzzo Vaccarino, Serge Lemoine, Marianne Le Pommeré, Erik Näslund, Giovanni Lista, Nicoletta Misler, John E. Bowlt, Evgenija Petrova, Giorgio Verzotti, Franca Sozzani, Darrell Wilkins, E. Iljuchina, Vittoria Crespi Morbio, Leonetta Bentivoglio, Gabriella Di Milia, Elena Gigli and Raman Schlemmer, these essays are followed by a catalogue of the works and biographies of the artists.
Rovereto, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Trent and Rovereto
17 December 2005 - 7 May 2006
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