Boris Aronsonand the Avant-garde Theatre

c. 1917-1929, Kiev to New York

Teachers’ Notes

Who was Boris Aronson?

Boris (Borukh) Solomon Aronson was born in 1898 in Nezhin in the Ukraine. He grew up in Kiev where his father was appointed Chief Rabbi., which meant that Aronson had access to a broad education.

He was an artistic child and was always drawing his friends at school. One day he drew a picture of a fly on to the Rabbi’s book when he left the room. When the Rabbi returned, he tried to swat the fly away. He then realised that it was just a drawing. Aronson did not get into trouble for playing the trick; instead the Rabbi was very impressed with his talent for drawing.

This event was important for Aronson as he realised that people prized naturalism (or realistic) drawings.

Aronson went on to study at Kiev Art School from 1912 - 16. At art school he had an influential teacher who had studied in Paris and been exposed to avant-garde ideas such as Cubism.

Aronson lived in Russia during and after the Russian Revolution (1917). During this time many Jewish communities had been forced to move out of the shtetls (small traditional villages) and into the towns and cities of Russia and Eastern Europe. Many of the Russian Jewish artists were very influenced by the Russian folk and Jewish art traditions. The artists wanted to record and memorise the ‘traditional’ art, such as the paintings found in old synagogues and the carvings on graves in Jewish cemeteries for example, but they were also keen to establish a new Jewish Yiddish art and culture. Aronson co-founded and subsequently led the Kultur-Lige (Culture League), an organisation dedicated to the promotion of Jewish culture. Aronson was part of the new ‘avant-garde’ in Russian art. The art was a mixture of the traditional and the new (showing influences of, and influencing, Modernism, Cubism and Constructivism).

Boris Aronson Self-portraitc. 1920Pencil on paper

This portrait is very significant, as it shows Aronson’s distinctive arched eyebrows, and a dancing figure in the right hand corner which indicates his future costume design work.It shows many of the influences on Aronson’s work, such as the naturalism of the portrait. The sharp lines on the face show the influence of Russian constructivism, the grids and architectural background which again show the influences of constructivism and are presented like a stage set design and finally the depiction of the Tallit, the Jewish prayer shawl, which reflects his Jewish heritage.

Boris Aronson and the Avant-garde Yiddish Theatre, c. 1917 - 1929 comes to the UK for the first time after being conceived by Galerie Le Minotaure, Paris and Tel Aviv, in 2012.

The exhibition features the avant-garde costume and theatre designs of Ukrainian-born Jewish émigré painter, sculptor, set designer, theorist and art critic Boris Aronson (1898 - 1980) - a pioneer at the forefront of the international Modernist movement.

The exhibition comprises more than 50 rare, original and little-known works on paper from Aronson’s early career together with a small number of works by his peers: Natan Altman (1889 - 1970), Isaak Brodsky (1884 - 1930), Marc Chagall (1887 - 1985), Alexandra Exter (1882 - 1949), Issachar Ber Ryback (1897 - 1935) and Pavel Tchelitchew (1898 - 1957). It also includes photographs, books and other related ephemera.

Key Words

Rabbi, Naturalism, Avante-garde, Cubism, shtetl, Modernism, Constructivism, self-portrait

Aronson moved from Russia via Berlin and Paris, and eventually on to New York. Along the way he met a number of very important artists such as Marc Chagall.

Aronson arrived in New York in 1923 with (in his own words) ‘some drawings, two books, a pair of socks, a membership in a union of German artists, paintbrushes, crowded emotions, little money, and less English’, but his status as a writer of art publications helped him to obtain an immigration visa. Knowing little English, he first found work within the local Jewish art scene, where he could speak Yiddish and Russian. His early commissions included book illustrations, but New York theatre was at that time, entering a period of renewal - its ‘second Golden Age’ - and Aronson became the leading designer for the city’s Jewish theatres.

His styles of set and costume design were very different from those that had previously existed and as a result his work also influenced a great number of other artists, designers and film makers. Aronson worked on a number of successful theatre productions, such as the ones shown in this exhibition.

Aronson was a very important artist. From the start of his career in a small studio in Moscow, he went on to become a famous and well respected theatre designer on Broadway in New York. During his career he received 8 Tony awards and was nominated for 6 others (the Tony awards can be seen as the theatre world’s Oscar equivalent).

Aronson’s most famous production was ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ (1964) He also went on to work on major productions such as ‘Cabaret’ and play with Arthur Miller.

Aronson died in 1980 in New York at 82 years old.

The picture ‘Sketch for cover design of a book’ is very significant as it could be said to represent Aronson’s émigré journey.

The picture shows Naum Gabo’s Constructivist head, next to the fashionable female figure in 1920’s dress, who looks like she is from New York or Berlin, the famous Roman Bust of the goddess Clytie and a Cubist-influenced modern head, set against a backdrop of modern interior and exterior designs.

We can also see details of buildings that evoke the high rises and new architecture of Berlin and New York and the funnel shapes in the lower left hand corner could evoke Constructivist towers, but also the funnels of the ships on which the émigrés travelled.

Boris Aronson Sketch for cover design of a book1920sWatercolour and India ink on cardboard

Sketch for cover design of a book

An experimental theatre company (translates as ‘Our Theatre’ company) in the Bronx, New York during the 1920’s. Aronson’s murals were permanent fixtures of the theatres, with huge figures on the walls alongside the seats, which depicted the evolution of Yiddish theatre and created an atmosphere of excitement.In 1925, the Romanian-Jewish actor Rudloph Schildkraut (1862 - 1930), who had made his name on the Austrian and German stage before emigrating to New York in 1920, took charge of ‘Unzer Teater’, and changed its name (in Yiddish) to the ‘Schildkroyt-teater’.

Set designers create the designs for the scenery in the play. They also have to consider things like lighting. Aronson also designed many of the costumes for the productions, which contributed to the overall ‘look’ of the show.

Yiddish Theatre is the type of theatre which was introduced by Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe in the late 19th century, to central Europe and the United States. Yiddish Theatre blossomed in the areas of Eastern and East Central Europe, Berlin, Paris, London and New York. The plays were performed in Yiddish and were often based on Yiddish folk tales, Shakespeare adaptations and stories of immigrant life.

What is Yiddish Theatre?

What is Unzer Theatre?

How does a set or costume designer work?

Terms Explained

Avant-Garde

Modernism

Cubo-Futurism

Constructivism

Yiddish

Manifesto

Civil WarActivists

Oyfgang

Kultur-Lige

People who actively engage in political or social campaigning

A war or conflict, of which the two sides are both inhabitants of the same country or state

(Culture League) an organisation dedicated to the promotion of Jewish culture.

“Yiddish” is the name of the language used by Jewish people in Europe and America. It is a mix of German and Hebrew, and was originally written in Hebrew characters.

A written or spoken public statement or declaration

An art movement which started in Moscow in the 1920s. The Constructivists embraced industrial materials and mechanical structures.

Hasidic

Artists and artworks that pioneer new movements in art by challenging accepted standards

An art movement that combines the abstract, geometrical shapes of cubism with the movement and growth of objects seen in Futurism.

Art that rejects traditional methods of making, embracing new materials and abstract ideas.

Hasidism is a branch of Orthodox Judaism defined by devotion to religious study and wearing of distinctive, traditional clothing.

(Paths of Jewish Painting) Progressive Jewish Journal

Day and NightDay and Night was based on S. An-sky’s dramatic poem Day and Night.

S. An-sky was a Russian Jewish writer who travelled between the Jewish shtetls in Russia and the Ukraine documenting the folk beliefs and stories of the Hasidic Jews and turning them into poems and plays.

The Bronx Express Aronson created the stage design for the production of ‘Bronx Express’ by the Russian émigré playwright Osip Dymov (1878–1959), who also acted as assistant director, with Aronson as co-director. The plot centres on an émigré button-maker who falls asleep on the New York subway and finds memories of his Eastern-European past merging strangely with the realities of his new American life.

For the staging of the play Aronson designed the interior of a subway car, which could be alternately transformed into a rich palace or a humble apartment, while his inventive costumes showed characters emerging from the adverts which plastered the subway car’s walls. Here, although the button-maker dreams of a beach resort, the ceiling of the subway car, where he is dreaming, can still be glimpsed.

Although the play was criticised for its shortcomings, Aronson’s dramatic designs were praised for helping to overcome its imperfections.

Key Words

folk, Hasidic, adaptation, dreams, daydreams, inside/outside, interactive, adverts, émigré

The Tenth Commandment (1926) was a musical production. It opened the Yiddish Art Theatre’s 1926 season of performances. It had incredible sets and costumes and an all-star cast. There were a total of were 25 scene changes and 360 costume changes!

The plot of the play follows the struggle between good and evil, embodied in the two main characters: the religiously devout Hasidic Jew Peretz, from Nemirov, and his business associate, the secularised Ludwig, from cosmopolitan Berlin. The ‘evil angel’ Achitofel, influences the two main characters to break the tenth commandment and become jealous of each other’s lives. The tenth commandment is ‘thou shalt not covet’.

Aronson’s extraordinary set included a little house in the woods that opened up to reveal its interior, anticipating his later designs for Fiddler on the Roof (1964). The most celebrated design was for a vision of hell which was based on a sweatshop set inside a man’s brain, while heaven was conceived as a theatre full of private boxes. Aronson’s castle scene includes a two-storey staircase and turrets, on the stage!

The Tenth Commandment

The set for ‘Hell’ included a fireman’s pole in the middle of the stage. The actors would repeatedly slide down the pole to give a feeling of movement and action. There was much movement on Aronson’s stages, with moving and changing sets which were visible to the audience. This is very different to the traditional stages in theatres, which relied on curtains dropping for set changes and very static backgrounds. Audiences would have been very excited by Aronson’s new ideas.

Key Words

Hasidic, secularised, cosmopolitan

The Golem is a famous figure in Yiddish literature.

The play was adapted from H. Leivick’s dramatic eight-scene poem, which follows the creation and animation of a man (the Golem) from inanimate material (clay) by a sixteenth-century Prague Rabbi in an attempt to defend the city’s Jewish community from harm. However, the project was ultimately unrealised (the production did not take place).

The fiddler character (from Fiddler in the Roof) is another famous character in Yiddish literature, and the figure of the fiddler is frequently found in works by Marc Chagall.

The Golem

Stempenyu, The FiddlerAronson’s notable designs for ‘Stempenyu, The Fiddler’ (1929), based on the stories of Sholem Aleichem, included a revolving stage.

This anticipated his own, later celebrated production of Fiddler on the Roof (1964), inspired by Chagall’s 1920 Moscow mural designs.

The set was novel for the Yiddish Theatre because the curtain was not lowered during the many changes of scene. Instead, the revolving stage had scenery painted on both sides, which were then rotated to show a Russian town on one side, the interior of a house on the other.

Key Words

inanimate, fiddler, revolving, interior

Paths of Jewish PaintingAronson’s ContemporariesThis room shows the work of the Russian Jewish artists working around the same time as Aronson and who influenced his own work.

Natan Altman (1889 - 1970)

The costume design shown in this exhibition was for a film which explains the ‘realistic’ style of the illustration. Altman’s work was usually very inventive.

Russian painter, sculptor, stage-designer and graphic artist, Natan Altman was born in Vinnitsa, Ukraine. He studied at the Odessa School of Art (1901 - 7) and at the Académie Russe in Paris (1910 - 12), where he produced works on Jewish themes and was influenced by Cubism. He later moved to La Ruche where he met Chagall and Soutine.

Altman returned to Vinnitsa in 1911 and lived in St Petersburg from 1912, producing his first stage design in 1916 and teaching at the Department of Visual Arts in Petrograd (1918 - 21), as well as illustrating books. In 1921–2 he designed sets for the Jewish Kamerny Theatre in Moscow and exhibited at the Jewish Cultural League with Chagall and David Sterenberg.

He lived in Berlin from 1922–4 and also exhibited in the First Russian Exhibition, publishing his own book on Jewish Graphics in 1923. He returned to the Jewish Kamerny Theatre from 1925 - 27, also designing for the cinema, and painting. In 1928 he returned to Paris, before finally settling in St Petersburg (Leningrad) in 1935.

Isaak Brodsky (1884 - 1930)

Painter, graphic artist and collector Isaak Brodsky was born in the Zaporozhe region of Ukraine and attended the School of Art in Odessa (1896 - 1902) and the St Petersburg Academy of Arts (1902 - 08), where his tutors included Ilya Repin, who greatly influenced him. Brodsky became well-known as a political caricaturist and painter during the revolutionary years 1905 - 07.

He illustrated various journals, and exhibited widely from 1907 onwards, with (among others) the Union of Russian Artists (1907 - 18) and the Munich International Exhibition (1913), where he won a gold medal. From 1909 - 11, he worked in Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Austria on an Academy scholarship.

In 1917 Brodsky drew a series of portraits of the members of the Provisional Government, winning first prize in the ‘Great Russian Revolution’ competition for his painting of Lenin (1919). Brodsky based many works around the October Revolution and its leaders, particularly Lenin and Stalin, which were often used as historical illustrations, and he was closely associated with the heyday of Socialist Realism. He was appointed Director of the Russian Academy of Artists in Leningrad from 1934 - 39.

Natan AltmanCostume design for Jewish LuckGouache on paper

Isaak BrodskyStage Designc.1920Mixed media on paper

Marc Chagall (1887-1995)

Chagall was born in 1887 in the town of Vitebsk, Russia (now known as Belarus). Like Aronson, Chagall also left Russia and travelled to Paris. He returned to Russia to visit his family but the outbreak of the First World War prevented his return to Paris. He finally returned to Paris in 1923 and became a French citizen in 1937.

Chagall frequently used animals for symbolic purposes in his works, creating dream-like paintings that brought together aspects of Russian folklore and French traditions. During the Second World War, Chagall sought refuge in New York where a major retrospective of his work was held at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in 1946. He later returned to France where he stayed, producing stained glass window designs for churches in France and the UK. He died in France in 1985.

Chagall’s first oil version of ‘Praying Jew’ was executed in 1914, modeled on an old beggar who wandered into his mother’s shop in Vitebsk. This figure, wrapped in Chagall’s father’s prayer shawl, was the most overtly religious of the series and remained a favourite of Chagall’s. Its combination of a largely realistically painted Jewish subject set against an abstract background, was immediately acclaimed when first exhibited in the “Year 1915” exhibition in Moscow. It combines 3 elements which were seen as very influential, the depiction of a religious subject, the realistic portrayal of the face, and the abstract background and pattern design of the tallit (prayer shawl).

Marc Chagall Le Rabbin (aka Praying Jew or Jew in Black and White) c. 1920 - 23Colour etching on Japanese paper

Alexandra Exter (1882 - 1949)

The back of this piece by Exter is actually covered in exhibition labels, which indicates how many times this work has been displayed. This work is different to Exter’s usual work which is usually very colourful and humorous. Exter was a powerful figure who influenced many other artists and designers. This character is a female character and is a costume design.

Born in Belostok, near Kiev, Exter attended the Kiev School of Art, graduating in 1907 and marrying Nikolai Exter. In 1908 she first visited France, studying at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière and mixing with Cubists including Picasso, Braque, Delaunay, Léger, Max Jacob, and Apollinaire.

She also exhibited extensively with her Russian peers in St. Petersburg, Kiev, Odessa, Riga, and Moscow. During the First World War, Exter lived, worked and exhibited in Russia. Around 1915, she began designing radical sets, and later, costumes for the theatre. She taught textiles at the Free Art Studio in Moscow c. 1918, and also held workshops from her studio from 1918 - 20. In 1924, she officially immigrated to France; an active exhibitor, she also taught privately and at Léger’s Academy of Contemporary Art. In 1928, Exter moved to the commune Fontenay-aux Roses in the south-west Paris, where she remained for the rest of her life.

Alexandra ExterCostume design for the film ‘The Daughter of Helios’c. 1927Gouache on paper

Pavel Tchelitchew (1898 - 1957)

Moscow-born Pavel Tchelitchew studied in Kiev at the Academy and with Alexandra Exter’s workshop from 1918 - 19, immigrating to Berlin in 1920, where he worked as a theatrical designer from 1921 - 23. He settled in Paris from 1923 - 34 exhibiting at the Salon d’Autumne (1925), Galerie Druet (1926), and holding a solo exhibition at Galerie Pierre (1929). In 1928 he designed Diaghilev’s production of Odes for the Théâtre Sarah-Bernhardt. He moved to New York in 1934, abandoning stage design in 1942 to concentrate on painting, and became an American citizen in 1952.

Issachar Ber Ryback (1897-1935)

Issachar Ryback was born into a Hasidic family in Kirovohrad, Russia (now Ukraine) and he studied art in Moscow. After the 1917 Russian Revolution he was part of a significant national Jewish art movement based on ghetto folk art, Jewish popular traditions and humour. Along with El Lissitsky, he was commissioned by the Jewish Historical and Ethnographic society to travel around the small towns of present day Ukraine and Belarus, copying paintings in wooden synagogues and carved gravestones in Jewish cemeteries.

This trip began Ryback’s sustained interest in Jewish folk art. He experimented with Expressionism and Cubism and completed an important series of lithographs depicting Jewish shtetl life. He worked as a designer for the Moscow theatre before settling in Paris where his style became more romantic. Ryback died in Paris in 1935.

Issachar Ber RybackWoman in Violetc. 1925Watercolour on paper

Pavel Tchelitchew Costume Designc.1921Gouache on paper

1898 15 October: Aronson was born in Nezhin in the Chernigov province of the Russian Empire (now Ukraine)

1903 Aronson and his family move to Kiev where his father, Shlomo Aronson (1863 -1935), is appointed Chief Rabbi

1905 Revolution: public strikes and demonstrations occur throughout Russia, including revolt within the armed forces

October: As a result of revolutionary pressure, Tsar Nicholas II signs the October Manifesto, outlining the instatement of the first democratically elected Parliament (the Duma)

Nahum Zemach founds the Habimah Theatre in Moscow

1906 March: first legislative elections for the Duma

1909 Sergei Diaghilev founds Ballets Russes (Russian Ballet)

1912 Aronson begins studies at the Kiev Art School, graduating in 1916

1913 Vladimir Tatlin accredited with the founding of the Constructivist art movement

1914 28 July: First World War begins

1917 February Revolution: Tsar Nicholas is forced to abdicate and a provisional government assumes power

Russian Jews become legally emancipated, thus acknowledged as equal citizens

17 July Tsar Nicholas II and his family are murdered

October Revolution: The Bolsheviks, a minority group of communists, led by Vladimir Lenin, overthrow the provisional government and declare a Soviet republic

Ukrainian National Republic declares independence from Russian Empire

1918 Creation of the first constitution by the Bolshevik government, establishing the basic rights of all citizens

Formation of the Kiev Kultur-Lige, an organisation dedicated to the promotion of Yiddish culture

Aronson begins attending art workshops of Alexandra Exter in Kiev, becoming Exter’s assistant in the creation of set designs for the Moscow Theatre’s production of Romeo and Juliet (conceived in 1918, but realized in 1920 - 21)

11 November: official end of The First World War

Timeline

1919 4 February: The Red Army enters Kiev

1920 February to March: the Art Section of the Kultur-Lige, Kiev organises the Jewish Exhibition of Sculpture, Graphics, and Drawing. Aronson is Head of the Exhibitions Committee and co- authors the catalogue introduction. Aronson also exhibits two works within the exhibition (both believed to be lost or destroyed)

1921 Museum of the Plastic Arts opens under Kultur-Lige. Aronson works at the Museum, which has a special section of ‘Jewish primitives’, possibly as a director

The Jewish Chamber Theatre relocates from Petrograd to Moscow, and becomes known as the Kamerny and the Yiddish State Theatre. Exter who designs for the Kamerny between 1916 and 1921, invites Aronson to assist her

Autumn: Aronson moves to Moscow, where he resides for almost a year, maintaining contact with the local Kultur-Lige, working with Exter and meeting Chagall

1922 The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) is established

The Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia (AKhRR) is formed

The Moscow Kultur-Lige organises an exhibition of works by Chagall, Altman, and Sterenberg

Aronson leaves Russia and moves to Berlin (Naum Gabo and his brother Antoine Pevsner also leave Russia, as do Chagall and Ryback, who also spend time in Berlin)

Aronson works in the studio of engraver Hermann Struck and exhibits at the First Russian Art Exhibition at Galerie Van Diemen in Berlin, an extensive exhibition (593 exhibits) including work by Archipenko, Altman, Chagall, Exter, Gabo, Malevich and Tatlin among others, designed to introduce Constructivism to the West

1923 April: The Jewish Theatre Society is organised

November: Aronson immigrates to New York; he immediately begins collaboration with the Jewish Theatre Society

1924 Aronson creates the “art decoration” for a ball organised by the Jewish Theatre Society, and authors an article published in the society’s magazine Tealit (“Theatre and Literature”)

December: The Jewish Theatre Society opens Unzer Teater (Our Theatre Company), an intimate, experimental theatre in the Bronx, New York. Aronson acts as the main stage designer for two out of the three productions including designing the set and costumes for Day and Night

1925 Actor Rudolph Schildkraut (1862 - 1930) takes over the Unzer Teater, renaming it (in Yiddish) Schildkroyt-teater

Aronson designs sets and costumes for the Unzer Teater production The Final Balance, and the Schildkroyt Theatre’s The Bronx Express

Aronson designs sets and costumes for the Yiddish Art Theatre’s (Second Avenue Theatre) The Tenth Commandment by A. Goldfaden, starring Maurice Schwartz and Joseph Buloff, directed by Schwartz; ballet directed by Michel Fokine. This is his first collaboration with Schwartz and it is widely regarded as their masterpiece 1927 Aronson designs sets and costumes for four plays including the Irving Place Theatre’s The Tragedy of Nothing

Aronson holds his first solo exhibition of stage and costume designs at Anderson Galleries, New York

1928 The art critic Waldemar George publishes a book on Aronson’s theatre designs in Paris Aronson designs sets and costumes for the Yiddish Art Theatre’s The Golem and Stempenyu, The Fiddler

1932 Leaves Yiddish theatre and begins working on Broadway with Vernon Duke and Yip Harburg’s Walk a Little Faster

1935 - 39 Creates several productions for the Group Theatre, including Irwin Shaw’s The Gentle People, which is considered Aronson’s breakthrough

1943 Lisa Jalowetz becomes his assistant

1945 Marries Lisa Jalowetz and they continue to work together for the rest of his career

1950 Creates sets and lighting for Season in the Sun and The Country Girl and sets for The Rose Tattoo (winner of 1951 Tony Award)

Creates sets for The Crucible, the first of his six designs for Arthur Miller plays

1955 Creates sets for productions including the long-running The Diary of Anne Frank (nominated for 1956 Tony Award)

1964 Designs set for Fiddler on the Roof (nominated for 1965 Tony Award), which marks the beginning of his commercial success and his association with producer-director Harold Prince

1966 Designs set for Cabaret (wins 1967 Tony Award)

1968 Designs set for Zorba (wins 1969 Tony Award)

1970 Designs set for Company (winner of 1971 Tony Award)

1971 Designs set for Follies (winner of 1972 Tony Award)

1976 Designs set for Pacific Overtures (winner of 1976 Tony Award)

1977 Works on final production: a set for Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker for Mikhail Baryshnikov

1980 16 November: Aronson dies in New York