Performing Art

 kay-ambrose This image is from the Balletomane’s Sketchbook by Kay or Katherine Ambrose. It is entitled “Alexander Wallewski – Maciek is dead, is dead!” Kay Ambrose was born in Surrey 1914 and died in London on 1st December 1971. Kay was an author, illustrator, artist and designer. She studied Fine Arts at Reading University (1933-1936) and (1943-1944) specialising in drama, elocution and dance. Two years after her first qualification in 1936, Kay became the illustrator of Arnold L. Haskell’s book Ballet (1938). For more information click here.
 jean-cocteau - eagle has two heads This is the front cover of the theatre program – “The Eagle Has Two Heads” ( French: “L’Aigle à Deux Têtes”) by Jean Cocteau. Not only did he illustrate the front cover of this, he was also the playwright.  The play was first staged in 1946 and caused endless discussion in Paris, London and New York.  In Australia, The Adelaide Theatre Group was the first to present this on March 30, 1949, at the Adelaide Tivoli Theatre.  Cocteau directed the film of the same title in 1948. For further information click here.
 John-Piper In this instance, I am referring to the gaping mouth-hole on this picture which is an inset of a section of curtain painted by John Piper in 1942 for the Edith Sitwell/William Walton production of Façade. John Egerton Christmas Piper (born 13 December 1903 – died 28 June 1992) was an English painter and print-maker. For much of his life he lived at Fawley Bottom in Buckinghamshire, near Henley-on-Thames. Piper, the son of a solicitor, was meant to follow in his father’s profession, but instead went to the Richmond School of Art, and later, the Royal College of Art in London. For more information click here.

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