Post­ed by Nao­mi Fire­stone-Teeter

Yale Uni­ver­si­ty Press and the Jew­ish Muse­um real­ly are a great team. Their most recent col­lab­o­ra­tion, which came out in Octo­ber, Cha­gall and the Artists of the Russ­ian Jew­ish The­ater, is a won­der­ful snap­shot of the Jew­ish role in the­ater and art in Rus­sia in the ear­ly 20th cen­tu­ry. This cof­fee-table size book has a beau­ti­ful assort­ment of images from the peri­od that accom­pa­ny essays by Susan Tumarkin Good­man, Zvi Gitel­man, Vladislav Ivanov, Jef­frey Vei­dlinger, and Ben­jamin Har­shav. Yale UP​‘s web­site sheds some more light:

Span­ning such top­ics as Jew­ish cul­ture and his­to­ry in the Sovi­et Union, the vol­ume includes stun­ning repro­duc­tions of Chagall’s cel­e­brat­ed the­ater murals; fas­ci­nat­ing archival mate­ri­als such as posters, prints, and play­bills; designs for cos­tumes and sets; and many oth­er breath­tak­ing works.

For those in the New York area, the Jew­ish Muse­um has their exhib­it of the same title up until March 22nd. More infor­ma­tion about the exhib­it can be found by vis­it­ing the Jew­ish Museum’s web­site.

Images above, in order from top to bottom:

Natan Alt­man, Poster for Jew­ish Luck, 1925. Col­lec­tion of Mer­rill C. Berman, New York. Art © Estate of Natan Altman/​RAO, Moscow/​VAGA, New York.

Ignatii Nivin­sky, Gyp­sy woman (Cos­tume design for The Golem), 1925, paper, lead pen­cil, water­col­or. Russ­ian State Archive of Lit­er­a­ture and Art (Moscow).

Marc Cha­gall, Dance, 1920, tem­pera, gouache, and opaque white on can­vas. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow. © 2008 Artists Rights Soci­ety (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris.