Bakst Stage Design

バクストの舞台美術 / 1909-1914 / Style / Stage Design

Sets and costumes rebuilt as a painter's single picture. Jewel-deep colors laid over one another, with swirling curves and orientalist pattern drawing the dancing body itself into the design.

Bakst Stage Design — Bakst, stage design for Les Orientales 1910 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain — Bakst, stage design for Les Orientales 1910 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

Bakst Stage Design — Bakst, costume design for Nijinsky 1912 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain — Bakst, costume design for Nijinsky 1912 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

Bakst Stage Design — Costume design by Bakst — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain — Costume design by Bakst — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

At a glance

Visual cues

Combinations of jewel deep color
Pattern laid over pattern in the costumes
Swirling Art Nouveau curves
Orientalist headdresses and loose trousers

Best used for

Setting design and costume first, as the leading element of a production
Making one performance an event remembered through its color

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Dictionary entry

Type: Programme and curtain from the same hand, lettering matched to the sets
Composition: Treat the backdrop as flat pattern and let costume movement supply depth
Material: Saturated dyed fabric, gold and silver, oriental motifs at large scale
Caution: Adding colors and patterns without deciding the contrast between set and costume dissolves the dancer into the backdrop and the movement disappears.
Further study: Léon Bakst / Sergei Diaghilev / its influence on 1920s fashion

Related entries

Art Nouveau (アール・ヌーヴォー)Shared effects: Luxury.Compare Bakst Stage Design and Art Nouveau
Art Deco (アール・デコ)Shared effects: Luxury / Exhilaration.Compare Bakst Stage Design and Art Deco

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