Boris Aronson

(1900 - 1980)               [

4091

Art in the Theatre.

An Exhibit By B. Aronson

New York: Anderson Galleries, 1927

247 x 186 mm. 32 pages

Edition: 315. Copy nr. 160.

Boris Aronson studied scenic design in Kiev under Alexandra Exter in 1917-1918 and was active in the Kultur Lige there. He emigrated to Berlin in 1922, where he published two books dealing with Russian Jewish art: Marc Chagall and Contemporary Jewish Graphics. He arrived in New York in November 1923, where he started his brilliant career as a theatrical designer first in an off-Broadway Yiddish theatre, then on Broadway. His modern designs, influenced by Exter, attracted much attention in the old fashioned New York theatre world. By 1925 Maurice Schwartz asked him to designer for his down-town New Yiddish Theatre. Because of the huge success of the designs Schwartz decided to organize an exhibition. From 13 to 23 December his costume designs, production models, illustrations for children’s books and wood cuts were exhibited in the Anderson Galleries. Among the sponsors of this ‘one-man theatre arts exhibit, unique enough even for blaze metropolitan first nighters’  were people from the Theatre Arts Monthly and The New York Times. The introduction to the catalogue is by John Mason Brown. The cover design by Aronson is a direct quote of Lissitzky’s famous design for the 1st Russian Art Exhibition catalogue, adding further to the modernity of Aronson’s works.

Reference:

Rich 1987, pp. 10-12