1914 1934 [Kamerny Theater]

Moscow, 1934. First Edition. Cloth. Near Fine. 4to. 30 by 22 cm. 48 pp., 195 plates (B/W and colored), 199-211, [1] pp. The plate leaves are sometimes with illustrations only on rectos, other times, both sides. The plates depict the costumes, sets and scenes of various productions and are a mix of photographs and artists' renderings. While by no means are the aesthetics identical from one production to the next, a strong modernism predominates, and the Cubist influence is the most salient, followed by Expressionism or a fusion of the two. These are most striking (truncated) in some of the set paintings, but they also inform the costumes and are even evident in photographs of actors in costume. It is this last point wherein lies a great deal of the value of this book. One can actually see how the artist's conception was realized. Each of the productions is introduced by a half-page captioned tissue (half the width of the page). Productions include , 1914, , 1915, , 1915, . . . , 1917, , 1930, . . . , 1934. (Inventory #: 004190)