Working for Diaghilev

After the Ilya Repin and Russian Landscape exhibitions, the Groninger Museum will present another Russia-oriented exhibition, Working for Diaghilev. The publisher, impresario and patron, Sergei Diaghilev, was one of the greatest artistic innovators of the previous century. He was the first to attract visual artists to work with composers and choreographers in order to create theatrical Gesamt works of art for a broad public. The world-renowned ballets that he produced in Paris at the beginning of the twentieth century left a permanent stamp on the world of dance. Both book and exhibition show the huge influence of Sergei Diaghilev (1872-1929), the Russian publisher, impresario and maecenas, on several disciplines in art around the turn of the nineteenth century. They also elucidate why Diaghilev is now being regarded as one of the most important figures in the art of the last century. The varied selection of paintings, graphics, set and costume designs of Russian artists - such as Bakst, Larionov. Gontcharova and Serov - and western artists - such as De Chirico, Matisse and Picasso - reveal the affinity with Diaghilev´s artistic ideas. In Western Europe, Diaghilev is primarily known as the source of inspiration and impresario of the dance company Les Ballets Russes, which completely innovated the dance world in the period 1910-1920 and re-established the eminent position of ballet among the arts. But Diaghilev also had a profound influence on the other visual arts. He co-operated with famous painters such as Matisse, Picasso, Di Chirico and Cocteau, with choreographers such as Fokine, Massine and Balanchine, and with composers such as Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Ravel and Debussy. The exhibition presents Diaghilev´s artistic legacy on an unprecedented scale. Paintings, drawings, costumes and décors from more than 15 museological and private collections in Russia, France, the UK, the USA and Spain will be brought together for the first time in the Groninger Museum. The exhibition displays work by unknown but highly-gifted Russian artists originating from Mir Iskusstva, such as Michail Vrubel, Valentin Serov, Alexander Golovin, Lev Bakst, Natalya Goncharova and Mikhail Larionov. The presentation of work by these artists will illustrate the strong influence of Russian culture on the development of the West European avant-garde. The effect of Russian artists on Western art, which has been rather underexposed until recently, forms the core substance of the exhibition. Sjeng Scheijen, a Slavist and specialist in the field of Russian art, compiled the exhibition. Curator Patty Wageman is responsible for the production.