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June 19, 2016

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Works of legendary Russian designer opens in Moscow

THE exotic stage and costume designs of Russian-born designer Leon Bakst, made famous at the Ballets Russes, are on display in a major retrospective in Moscow which examines his shock impact on fashion and theater. The exhibition, which opened this week at the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, features around 250 works by the designer, born 150 years ago.

“This exhibition is unprecedented, with works from around 30 Russian and Western collections — both private and public,” said Marina Loshak, director of the Pushkin Museum which focuses on Western art.

The retrospective includes portraits, pastels and watercolors as well as Bakst’s scenery designs and stunning costumes for choreographer Sergei Diaghilev’s hugely influential Ballets Russes in the early 1900s.

Idolized by ballet fans worldwide, Bakst is also admired by followers of fashion for his flowing lines and vivid use of color. The colorful wigs and blue harem pants that he created for Diaghilev’s ballets swiftly became all the rage in Paris.

One of the exhibition’s highlights is the silk rose petal costume he designed for dancer Vaslav Nijinsky for the 1911 ballet “Le Spectre de la Rose.”

Lent by Russia’s top Vaganova Ballet Academy in Saint Petersburg, this costume has never been shown in Moscow before.

The exhibition shows the multi-faceted talents of Bakst, who grew up in an Orthodox Jewish family in Grodno, which was then in the Russian Empire and is now part of Belarus. His real name was Leib Haim Rosenberg.




 

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