Design for Salomé

Alexandra Exter created this design for a 1917 Russian production of Salomé at Moscow’s Kamerny Theatre, the second of three collaborations between Exter and the theatre director Alexander Tairov. Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) wrote Salomé in French during a stay in Paris in 1891 and never saw a production of his play; he was incarcerated in Reading Gaol when the only production during his lifetime took place at the Théâtre de la Comédie-Parisienne in 1896. In contrast to Aubrey Beardsley’s Art Nouveau illustrations for the first edition of the play, Exter fused ideas from futurism and constructivism. This sculptural design shows how Exter, part of the Russian avant-garde in early 20th-century painting, adapted constructivism’s ideology of geometric form for stage design and costuming. For her, as art historian Steven A. Nash noted, dancers and actors were as “compositional elements.”