'A sumptuous illustrated catalog.' Suzy Menkes, International Herald Tribune Ser
ge Diaghilev (1872 - 1929) was an extraordinarily gifted impresario, curator, di
rector and animator of the arts. He was perfectly at home driving the wave of cr
eative energy that pushed theatrical performance to the cutting edge of cultural
activity in the early twentieth century. A roll call of the Ballets Russes' col
laborators and circle bears witness to their impact on modernism and later twent
ieth-century art; Picasso, Stravinsky, Nijinsky, Bakst, Goncharova, Matisse, Cha
nel, Prokofiev, Man Ray and Cocteau all worked with Diaghilev - and their work i
s discussed and illustrated here.