Alexandra Exter theatre and Ukrainian scenography in the 1910s and 1920s

Abstract

The article is devoted to developing Alexandra Exter’s system of decorations on the stages of Ukrainian theatres. The principles of stage design, discovered by Exter in the Moscow productions of Famira Kifared (1916), Salome (1917), and others, were viewed and shared as a specific methodology among Kyiv and Odesa artists in the Ukrainian Soviet Republic. The article focuses on scenographic projects of the Ukrainian theatrical avant-garde paradigmatic figures – Vadym Meller, Anatol Petrytsky, and Oleksandr Khvostenko-Khvostov. The early Isaac Rabinovich and Vadym Meller were in the circle of Ukrainian ad-herents, too. Mykhailo Andriienko-Nechytailo, Mykola Sokolov, and many others considered themselves students and followers of Exter in Kyiv. Their stage experience at the turn of the 1910s – 1920s marked the decisive transition of Ukrainian scenography to volumetric-plastic spatial structures that reflected, supported, and contributed to the development of stage action.