Modernism
Wanda Gág, Printmaker with a”Grimm” Aesthetic
Until a few weeks ago, the name Wanda Gág meant nothing to me, but it turns I was very familiar with her most famous work. I discovered Gág while I was happily reading a book about professional women artists in the first half of the twentieth century who had all been students of a single…
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Bronislava Nijinska, of the Ballets Russes and Other Dance Companies
I became fascinated by Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes in my senior year in college thanks to a class run by the music department.* I had already been familiar with some of the music, and a few of the names. That class introduced me to the company as a convergence of modernisms in the hands of…
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Anita Berber: Dance Hard, Die Young
Unlike the “Blond Hans,” who made regular appearances in Sigrid Schultz’s letters and memoirs, Schultz mentioned Expressionist dancer, cabaret artist, and actress Anita Berber (1899-1928) only once. A year after Berber’s death, Schultz described Berber as “the wild woman of inflation days—who burned away her great dancing talent with dope and wild parties, portraying her…
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