Isamu Noguchi (1904–1988)
Costume designs for Orpheus
Watercolor and metallic paper on card, 1948
Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center
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Costume designs for Orpheus
These costume designs were made for Isamu Noguchi’s collaboration with George Balanchine (1904–1983) and Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971) on the ballet Orpheus (1948), the only time the three worked together. Orpheus is significant to Balanchine’s legacy for two reasons. It so impressed the producer Morton Baum (1905–1968) that it inspired him to invite Balanchine’s company, Ballet Society, to become the company in residence at City Center under the new name of New York City Ballet. And the symbol of New York City Ballet remains Orpheus’s lyre, the original design for which was also Noguchi’s. It is housed in the Dance Division.
The figures in this costume design are cutouts, intended to be used in a maquette of the set, also designed by Noguchi and in the Dance Division’s collections. Noguchi made many gifts to the Jerome Robbins Dance Division, where researchers can access his costume and set designs and his correspondence with choreographers.
: Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing A…
Currently on View at Stephen A. Schwarzman Building
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