From his obituary in The New York Times:
"No factual account can quite convey the passions Serge Lifar engendered around him. These were rooted in his artistic ideas, not merely in his well-publicized escapades - challenges to duels with Leonide Massine and the Marquis de Cuevas, or his ballet for helicopters at the 1950 Paris air show. Nor should one focus on his penchant for creating roles for himself. In his version of 'Afternoon of a Faun,' he was a faun without nymphs."
The last remnants of one of the greatest private collections of Ballets Russes material goes on view in Geneva this week, prior to being sold on 13th March 2012.
The sale includes more than 300 drawings, paintings and prints by the likes of Picasso, Max Ernst and Juan Gris, 3000 vintage photographs of celebrities from Coco Chanel to Charlie Chaplin, and a rediscovered trove of drawings and manuscripts by Jean Cocteau; all owned by Serge Lifar, the principal dancer of Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes during its final years in the late 1920s.
Lifar and Diaghilev
A substantial amount of material came from [his lover] Serge Diaghilev either before or after his death in 1929. Lifar was an executor of Diaghilev’s estate, and took it upon himself to safeguard many of his possessions.
Read more about the Serge Lifar auction in The Telegraph
Les Ballets Russes etaient dans le style russe a travers un prizm francais.
ReplyDeleteSerge Lifar a ramene le ballet a sa juste place en France lorsqu'il a ete nomme directeur du Ballet de l'Opera de Paris. Tenu en haute estime jusqu'a ce qu'il collabre pendant l'occupation. On disait qu'il avait un officier allemand pour amant. *d'Anjou
Yes, he garnered such a shameful record of artistic collaboration with the authorities during the Nazi occupation it ended his career in the end. Jx
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