For reasons not obvious to me the Art World refuses to acknowledge the brilliance of our Curators. Unlike film producers or theatre directors, our galleries and museum directors (who we do know) want to keep the brilliance of their staff to themselves. This is patently unfair. An Exhibition depends almost entirely on their professional competence. There ought to be an annual awards ceremony to celebrate their success.
I mention this yet again because I slipped along to the Diaghilev at the V&A at lunch-time. It is just so beautifully choreographed you want to be able to hug the curators in thanks for a quite brilliant performance.
Try, and find their names......they are not listed in the opening credits as you walk in to the Exhibition, they are not in the small booklet which you read and re-read as you go through - there's so much to take in that I'll be back for a second time and I left wanting to know more. Fortunately, the V&A has a packed schedule of talks, concerts, workshops and courses to accompany it. Good for them.
Just consider some of the Players with whom Diaghilev worked with:
Russian musicians: Igor Stravinsky & Sergei Prokofiev
Russian dancers and choreographers: Vaslav Nijinsky (an early Diaghilev lover) and his sister, Bronislava Nijinska; George Balanchine, Mikhail Fokine
Russian Artists: Alexandre Benois, Leon Bakst, Natalia Gonchorova, Mikhail Larionov, Serge Lifar, Leonide Massine, Nicholas Roerich
Russian Ballerina: Tamara Karsavina
But not content with finding so much Russian talent just as the autocratic rule of the czars would come to a bloody end he was also a friend (that may be too strong a word) of seemingly everyone that mattered in Art Europe - Pablo Picasso designed Cubist sets and costumes which must have been impossible to dance in (and married the Russian dancer Olga Kokhlova); Henri Matisse was finally persuaded to design
Le Chant de rossignol; Giorgio Chirico helped with
Le Bal; Jean Cocteau wrote scenarios for four productions including
Parade and Coco Chanel was a consultant to the Ballets Russes and Stravinsky's lover. Quite a cocktail.
The Show is dazzling.
And the Curators?
Step forward: JANE PRITCHARD & GEOFFREY MARSH
Tickets:
www.vam.ac.uk/tickets (you will need to book unless a member)