Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 1979 - 43

Research
The Museum of Modern Art
by Ginnine Cocuzza
In this, its 50th anniversary year, the Museum of Modern Art is
presenting an exhibition entitled Art at the Twenties (May 17-August
7), the years immediately preceding the museum's inception. The
Theatre Arts section includes more than fifty items selected from the
theatre collection of the Department of Drawings. This selection,
representing a decade of vigorous design innovation, particularly for
the dance, is but a small portion of the several hundred items in the
collection.
A Theatre Collection consisting of all forms of related materials
had been organized within MaMA in the early thirties. With the
development of the New York Public Library Theatre Collection as a
significant archive, however, MaMA's collection was disbanded. All
original drawings and paintings by the designing artist were retained;
historical and archival materials were divided between the Harvard
Theatre Collection and the NYPL as suggested by Lincoln Kirstein
who had been a primary donor; and the drawings and renderings
which were retained became the basis of a special collection within
the Department of Drawings.
A preliminary card catalog identifying each item in the collection
was established in 1967. Lisa Messinger, Curatorial Assistant in the
Department of Drawings, is developing a descriptive catalog and has
already researched the Diaghilev Ballets Russes, Bauhaus, and Expressionist materials in the collection for production information. The
collection is very strong in early 20th century ballet materials. Among
other items, the Ballets Russes is represented by Bakst costume
plates for the Firebird and the Sleeping Princess. From the Ballet
Caravan, precursor of the New York City Ballet, come Karl Free's
designs for Pocahontas and Paul Cadmus' drawings for Filling Station. Other ballet designers represented include Eugene Berman,
Pavel Tchelitchew, Natalia Gontcharova's Liturgie and Les Noces,
Diego Rivera's H.P., Fernand Leger's Skating-Rink and La Creation
du Monde for the Ballets Suedois, and Marc Chagall's Aleko.
The actual costume made from the Mikhail Larionov drawing of the
"Buffoon and His Wife" is currently displayed in the Metropolitan
Museum of Art exhibition Diaghilev: Costumes and Designs of the
Ballets Russes (through June). The drawing itself is with a MaMA
exhibition A Treasury of Modern Drawing: the Joan and Lester Avnet
Collection now touring South America. The Spanish-language catalog for this exhibition includes an essay on the twenty theatre items in
the show.
An unusual rendering technique is preserved in a collection of
Florine Stettheimer costume plates. Not content with a flat drawing,
she modelled each costume in relief applying the swatches directly
onto the miniature costume. There are also costume plates by David
Hockney for Ubu Roi, Robert Israel for Gulliver's Travels, and Sonia
Delaunay for Dada theatrical events.
While the majority of the items are costume plates, set and drop
renderings are also included, notably several Chagall drops and the
Robert Edmond Jones designs for Othello and The Iceman Cometh.
Among the works of contemporary artists is a large collection by Jim
Dine: costume and set drawings with notes and swatches for A
Midsummer Night's Dream, the Dorian Gray series, and Car Crash.
Several drawings from Robert Wilson's Einstein On the Beach have
been recently acqUired.
There are a few film items in the collection. Drawings from Melies'
Flight to the Moon (1902) can be compared to those by Red Grooms
USITT Summer, 1979

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Mikhail Larionov's Buffoon and His Wife from theMOMA collection.

for Shoot the Moon (1962), his homage to this early animation. The
Walt Disney Studios are represented by drawings from Fantasia and
Gulliver's Travels. Peripheral materials such as Picasso's drawings of
dancers in rehearsal are also included. As the collection is currently
defined, the Department of Drawings attempts to acquire high quality
theatre drawings particularly those by artists with fine arts careers in
addition to their work in the theatre.
All departments of the Museum of Modern Art are available to
researchers by appointment. Other design resources within MaMA
include the departments of Prints and Illustrated Books, Films, Photography, and Architecture and Design which contains an extensive
poster collection. Each department must be inquired of separately
and with reference to a specific subject as there are no public catalogs. Address inquiries to the Museum of Modern Art, 21 West 53rd
Street, New York, New York 10019; or telephone several days in
advance (212)956-6100._
Theatre Design & Technology

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 1979