George Kirsta

George Kirsta (Georgii Konstantinovich Kirsta) was an Ukrainian-Russian painter, costume and stage designer. He was Belarusian in sense of belonging. Due to political changes, he had to leave his homeland several times and, against all odds, managed to earn his living with art in the respective host countries. He had a lifelong fascination with ballet.

Regarding his precise time of birth, sources differ. While Alfred Oberzaucher in an interview and Gunhild Oberzaucher-Schüller in an article on the Tanz.at-website agree on the date, 10th February 1900, in the text The Background of the Original Ballet Russe the year 1901 is mentioned.

He was born in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. His father, Konstantin Kirsta, was a civil engineer and his mother, Lyubov Rogowzow, grew up in Kiev and completed an art degree in St. Petersburg. Like his mother, Kirsta himself grew up in Kiev, as well before and during the war years. Meanwhile he underwent a university study in fine arts in St. Petersburg with Dimitri Kardowski (1866–1943). He then moved back to Kiev, where the first contact with Bronislava Nijinska (1892–1972) came about.

At the time, Ukraine was part of the Tsardom of Russia. Many parts of modern-day Ukraine currently fall under the sphere of the Russian Empire. Ukrainian-language theatre performances, lectures, schools and the printing of Ukrainian-language writings were banned by decree, a few years before Kirsta's birth.

Despite the economic boom brought about by coal mining in cities like Kharkiv, the Russian Empire remained an autocracy, ruled without restrictions by the tsar, without parliament, political parties, a constitution, freedom of the press and also without freedom of assembly. Ethnic minorities, particularly the Ukrainians were even more affected by the restrictions than the Russians.

At the age of 14 he had his first exhibition. He left Russia in 1920 to move to Vienna, Berlin, back to Vienna and finally to London. In Vienna – the capital of the then still young Republic of Austria – he felt at home and described it as his adopted home. Oberzaucher-Schüller also speaks of an escape from Kiev and an arrival in Vienna at the latest by June 1921. He wrote from his London exile, that there he had the most productive phase of his life as a painter.

He and his girlfriend had fled west to escape the atrocities of the Bolsheviks. The fact that they banned the emerging alternative theatre scene because of the uniformly conservative nationalist ideas in the 1920s is only a side note here.

Later they got married. He brought the habitus and aesthetics of the Kiev ballet with him to Vienna. During this time he probably wrote his first published libretto.

He was repeatedly in Berlin for various theatre projects, where he was surrounded by other Russian artists and intellectuals. He became part of the Russian scene. From 1924 to 1937 he worked mainly in German-speaking countries as a set designer for various music theatre productions and ballet evenings.

In Vienna, too, he got to know the Russian community, through which he became involved in the music and dance theatre scene. There, he also worked as a portrait painter. He met many of the people portrayed there at a later point in time in the course of his work as a writer, music theatre designer or ballet organiser.

For example, his portraits show Hermann Broch (1886–1951) in 1926 in the style of the Neue Sachlichkeit. The preliminary study for this in red chalk, as well as the painting itself, can be found at the Broch Museum in Teesdorf. He also painted Georg Antheil, Ellen Tels (1880–1944), Mila Cirul (1901–1977), Sybilla Bley (1897–1962), Vera Salvotti, as well as the couple Julius Meinl II (1869–1944) and Michiko Tanaka-de Kowa (1909–1988). At that time, his painting studio was in the fourth district of Vienna.

From the 1920s onwards, he repeatedly held various exhibitions, such as in the Neue Galerie in Vienna in May 1928, in the Hotel de l'Europe in Bad Gastein in August 1936 and in the Palser Gallery in London, in November 1937.

On 24th March 1933, the Vienna Herald wrote that Kirsta designed sets for Diaghilev's (1872–1929) Ballets Russes. Contrary to the view of the early Ballets Russes, Kirsta distanced himself from the conviction of producing art for its own sake. However, Alix Kirsta questioned this.

In his development as a painter, he went through various styles that cannot always be clearly identified. The shape of his portraits is that of the Neue Sachlichkeit paired with a kind of neo-neo-classicism. The colouring and the background are reminiscent of the heaviness of the baroque old masters.

It is striking that his portraits mostly look directly at the recipient with wide eyes. Looking at the œuvre of the painter, who had to flee his homeland twice in his life, his paintings convey a kind of detachment and deliberation.

Nevertheless, the paintings sometimes transport sadness and sometimes humour. His portraits appear sometimes as if they were assembled from individual plastic objects.

He managed to earn the necessary income from his artistic activities, be it painting, stage or costume design, at the respective new centres of his life.

His first Viennese stage design could be seen in Commedia dell'arte des XX. Jahrhunderts in today's Metro Kinokulturhaus, the Modernes Theater in October 1924. The production was mainly run by exiled Russians.

There he painted compositions, mostly still lifes in a classical style. Furthermore he again dealt with art history and wrote about Italian Baroque painters. He wrote texts such as Caravaggio und die Kunst der Gegenwart, which were published in Leopold Zahn's 1928 book of the same name.

The essays Ballett von Morgen and Vom Tanzkostüm were brought out in the illustrated ballet journal Schrifttanz, 1929 and 1930. He was also involved in the visual designs of the dance journals, by designing drawings and providing costume designs for the publications.

In 1935, Kirsta designed the performances entitled Johann Strauss To-Night! for the Ballets Jooss in England. The choreography for this was created by Kurt Jooss (1901–1979).

Kirsta migrated from Vienna to London before the annexation of Austria, but probably travelled back and forth between the two cities a number of times as early as he designed the Nijinska choreographed production of The Beloved One (1928) in 1937 with the original title La Bien-Aimeé (1928).

In the course of the production of La Bien-Aimeé for the coronation of George VI, he emigrated to London to escape National Socialism.

After being influential in the Russian-Ukrainian environment as well as in the Viennese and Berlin art milieu, London was the third cultural area that Kirsta shaped in the course of his painting and theatre career.

In exile in England, he worked as a producer, stage and costume designer for musical theatre and ballet performances. He also continued to work as a portrait painter.

There he produced both Mussorgsky's (1839–1881) composition under the name Sorotchintsi Fair (Сорочинская ярмарка, 1880) and an English-language interpretation of Offenbach's (1819–1880) fantastic opera Les contes d'Hoffmann (1881), each with additional ballets.

For other productions, Kirsta wrote libretti, directed productions, and designed costumes and sets for nearly all productions in which he was involved.

For example, at the crime comedy ballet Bullet in the Ballet (1946) he completed the scenic design, the texts and decided about the ballet elements such as Pétrouchka (1911).

This comedy was based on the novel with the same name by Caryl Brahms (1901–1982) and Skidelsky Jacoblivitch Simon (1904–1948).

The premiere took place at the King's Theatre in Edinburgh, 14th October 1946. Contributors included Irina Baronova (1919–2008) and Léonide Massine (1895–1979), who also designed the choreography.

After World War II he was also closely associated with the beginnings of the London Metropolitan Ballet.

The Metropolitan Ballet was a British ballet company that existed from 1947 until its dissolution in 1949. It was founded by Cecilia Blatch and Leon Hepner.

Performances took place in London, as well as on tours in the English countryside and abroad. Mostly shortened versions of classics, some of the Diaghilev ballets and new works were shown.

Ballet masters of the Metropolitan Ballet were Victor Gsovsky (1902–1974), Andrée Howard (1910–1968), Frank Staff (1918–1971) and John Taras (1919–2004).

In the years 1947–1949 he took over the position of the artistic director and equipped various ballet performances for the troupe.

A large audience was able to see his ballet production Lovers‘ Gallery with Lennox Berkeleys (1903–1989) Divertimento in B flat major, as well as Taras’ choreography for Designs with Strings.

In 1949, he again worked together with Markova (1910–2004) and Dolin (1904–1983). This time they realised Nutcracker and Les Sylphides.

In 1953/1954 he established his own company, the Ballet Comique.

He changed his first name from Georgi to Georg and to George, depending on the local language. This can be seen as a sign of partially successful integration.

For some productions, Kirsta wrote libretti, concepts for ballet works without text and he provided costumes and set designs for almost all productions in which he was involved.

He often portrayed his partner Ilona Holzmann (June 1st 1914 in Vienna–December 4th 1983 in Slough/England), who had travelled to England with him. They married in London.

George Kirsta died in London in February 1955. Kirsta described himself as a man who is obsessed with ballet. Although his works are rare on the art market, he left his mark on the world as a stage designer, costume designer, ballet impresario and artistic painter.

LIST OF LITERATURE USED:

A. D., »The Viennese Painter Goerges Kirsta«, newspaper article, in: The Vienna Herald, 24th Mar. 1933, last accessed 4th Apr. 2023

Antheil, George, Bad Boy of Music. Autobiographie, Europäische Verlagsanstalt, Hamburg 2000

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Clarke, Mary, »George Kirsta. Obituary«, in: The Ballet Annual (1955), Adam and Charles Black, London 1955

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Kirsta, Georg, art. »Vom Tanzkostüm«, in: Schrifttanz. Eine Vierteljahresschrift, ed. by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Schrifttanz (Alfred Schlee), Vienna, 1/1928–4/1931; reprint, Oberzaucher-Schüller Gunhild, Hildesheim et al. 1992, p. 51

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