Goncharova: Stage Designs and Paintings

Dust jacket notes: "The arrival of Diaghilev's Ballets Russes in Paris during the first decade of the twentieth century fully revealed the pulsating world of Russian aesthetic creativity whose existence had scarcely been guessed at in the West. The bright, almost brutally strong, colours, the evocation of the exotic and the exploration of the national Slavic heritage which marked the Ballets Russes designs had an immense impact upon western painting and the decorative arts. Natalia Goncharova's unique genius occupies a special place not only in the history of the Ballets Russes but also in the evolution of twentieth-century stage design, and her costumes and sets for Le Coq d'Or and Les Noces are acknowledged masterpeices, landmarks of the modern theatre designer's art. Mary Chamot presents the only comprehensive study of Goncharova currently available in English. Drawing upon her own correspondence with and recollections of the artist, a personal friend, and utilizing over one hundred illustrations, many of works form the Soviet collections of Moscow, Omsk and Kazan, Miss Chamot traces Goncharova's development as a stage designer, a book illustrator and a painter, an aspect of her achievement which has long merited more critical attention. The influence of the system of private patronage during the pre-Revolutionary 'Silver Age' of Russian art, the importance of the Soviet Constructivists and the enduring support of Mikhail Larionov, the artist with whom Goncharova shared her life in Russia and in Paris, are all assessed in this stimulating biography of a woman whose imagination responded to the widest range of stimuli, from the Fauves to peasant art to ikons and even, in her last years, to the penetration of outer space by sputniks. Her career yielded a vibrant image of her native Russia, admired in the West, venerated in the East and accepted as authoritatively genuine by both. Hardcover, 8.5" x 12", 104 pages, over 110 illustrations, 9 in full color.