I have chosen the palette of the Ballets Russes, as they were, arguably, the most well-known works of Bakst that had great influence on the society at large. The main argument of this paper is that Bakst’s designs for Diaghilev’s productions were modern in a way they were attuned to the moods of a given period, in their re-appropriation and synthesis of the past, while not being conventionally and deliberately modern, but rather ambiguous, representative of Bakst’s own oscillations between high and low art and the dissociation between his intellectual system of beliefs and his artistic sensitivity. Primarily interested in Bakst’s oscillation between ‘high’ and ‘low’ art, dissociation between his aesthetic desires and those of others, this research will focus on the collaboration between Bakst and the Ballets Russes. Bakst was formed in a classical academic tradition and was perceived as a “refined and curious collector of historical artifacts.” However, he extended his practice far beyond the conventional framework and incorporated many concepts and movements, such as Symbolism and Fauvism he acted as a prism of modernity, adapting historical findings to reflect contemporary moods in art and culture. Utterly representative of contradictory complexities of the early 20th century modernity, he had grown to fame at the turn of the century and was older than many of his peers.
As this paper will argue, struggling to define himself between the old and the new, Leon Bakst attempted to answer the same questions that are haunting the discourse of decorative arts today.
0 kommentar(er)
