Summary: Collaborations in Modern and Postmodern Visual Arts | Carina Nandlal In 1920, a ballet designed by Pablo Picasso with music by Igor Stravinsky premiered. Despite the pedigree of its collaborators, the reaction was generally mild and the work has slipped out of the repertoire. However, this ballet is significant as the unique collaboration between two of the great modernist artists of the early twentieth century. The story of this collaboration began in Naples 1917 when, under the umbrella of the legendary Ballets Russes, these two artists met. Picasso and Stravinsky immediately struck up a friendship. They not only shared similar aesthetics, their friendship was deeper than mutual appreciation. Their shared love of popular entertainment saw them scouring the city for kitsch memorabilia and their enjoyment of nighttime carousing saw them jailed for lewdness. During this time they immortalised their friendship in a series of reciprocal exchanges, which demonstrate a desire to mimic the style and technique of the other in their own medium. Soon after meeting, Picasso and Stravinsky began sketching ideas for a commedia dell’arte ballet. Pulcinella started with an excited fervor yet in the intervening three years the production changed dramatically. It veered from the initial idea of bringing a low cultural form onto the high art stage, towards an extravagant 18th century Baroque fantasy. Finally, the collaborators returned to their initial vision based on their shared experiences of the commedia dell’arte in Naples and in so doing produced a key statement of the emerging new classicism of the postwar period. This paper explores the sole product of the collaboration between these two artists through the lens of the reciprocal exchanges they made in friendship to one another. This artistic dialogue is foundational for understanding the aesthetic achievement of the ballet. Ultimately the collaboration itself as well as these reciprocal exchanges demonstrates how crossing the spheres between art and music provided both Picasso and Stravinsky new insights into their own medium. Carina Nandlal is a PhD candidate in art history at the University of Melbourne. Her research focuses on Picasso's work as a theatrical designer in the Ballets Russes between 1917 and 1920. She is particularly interested in the friendship and collaboration between Picasso and the modernist composer Igor Stravinsky.
