Modernism on Stage: The Ballets Russes and the Parisian Avant-Garde by Juliet Bellow (review)

Reviews 279 virtually impossible to infer.Amer’s“excavation”of Islamic teachings and prescriptions, as they pertain to women’s dress and sociocultural and political behavior, is detailed and thorough. She reveals that “new research [...] has unearthed the extraordinary political and social role played by Muslim women in the early history of Islam” and, therefore, more modern, restrictive ordonnances meted out by hardliners, clearly demonstrates that such interpretations“are nothing but imposed constructions”(47). Additionally, the author takes to task Western depictions of Muslim women that have contributed to enduring stereotypes. Hollywood also has created many negative meanings associated with Muslim veiling that have“voided”any“spirituality and faith” and,in their place,instilled the garb with sexual fantasy,“erotic fulfillment,and prospects of penetration and possession”(78).Amer concludes with a chapter on veiling through the arts as articulated in Muslim countries around the world. She notes that artists are increasingly taking active roles in contemporary debates about women and the veil. The veil has become a forum for actively challenging “the homogenization of Muslim women” and, thus, contesting their perceived lack of subjectivity and agency (176). Amer offers a thoughtful and nuanced discussion of the hijab which provides a holistic approach to a subject that in our post-9/11 era often leads to divisiveness rather than common understanding. University of Maryland Valérie K. Orlando Bellow, Juliet. Modernism on Stage: The Ballets Russes and the Parisian Avant-Garde. Farnham: Ashgate, 2013. ISBN 978-1-4094-0911-3. Pp. 280. $120. Through a close reading of four works, Bellow offers insightful commentaries about Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes and its diverse art forms inspired by Richard Wagner’s Gesamtkunstwerk (total work of art) during the interwar years. The book features numerous exquisite paintings, sketches, and stills of costumes and set designs that offer a first-hand account of the multi-media form at the heart of the troupe’s productions. The author sheds light on the fusion of art forms and explores the aesthetic shifts taking place in dance at the beginning of the twentieth century, marking a departure from the classical ballets of famed choreographer Marius Petipa, through an in-depth study of Ballets Russes’s productions and how audiences reacted to them. Bellow explains the blurred boundaries between art and entertainment in interwar Paris as she examines the ways in which the troupe’s productions attempt to create new connections in the plastic arts, music, and dance. Divided into five chapters, Modernism on Stage focuses on four ballets designed by canonical modernist artists: Pablo Picasso and Parade, Sonia Delaunay and Cléopâtre, Henri Matisse and Le chant du rossignol, and Giorgio de Chirico and Le bal. Through Bellow’s work we come to better understand how the relatively new medium of cinema played a significant role in Picasso’s aesthetic approach to Parade; we delve into Matisse’s “Oriental”-inspired costumes and set design for a production generally considered a failure, particularly as very little has been written about this work; we also learn about the fragmentary yet fanciful approach de Chirico applied to both the costumes and sets of Le bal. It is in this final chapter that Bellow tackles issues that, in our digital age, have become critical: “What happens to works of art (and artists) when they grow old? Who is charged with their maintenance and upkeep? With their legacy?” (239). The chapter entitled “Fashioning New Women: Sonia Delaunay and Cléopâtre” deserves special attention, as Bellow’s detailed study of Delaunay’s complex role as an artist and mannequin places an often neglected emphasis on the role of women as both producers and consumers of culture in the early twentieth century. Bellow broadens our perspective of art as a destabilizing force and asks us to reconsider Wagner’s notion of a new form of total artwork and its relevance to contemporary works. As Bellow includes many illustrations and relevant details, the reader is immersed in the artistic universe of the Parisian Avant-Garde, which enables her to see the originality of Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes at its best. Finally, it should be mentioned that the bibliography provides ample reference for...