Exter, Alexandra

Exter, Alexandra (née Grigorovich) (1882–1949). Russian painter and theatrical designer. She was born at Belestok, in the Kiev region of the Ukraine, and studied at the Kiev School of Art, graduating in 1906. In 1908 she visited Paris for the first time and from then until the outbreak of the First World War she made regular visits there, forming a link between the Western avant-garde and that in Russia (she knew Apollinaire, Braque, and Picasso, among other luminaries). Her work was shown at numerous avant-garde exhibitions in Russia in this period, in Moscow, St Petersburg, and elsewhere; she was a member of the Knave of Diamonds and the Union of Youth, for example, and M. N. Yablonskaya writes that ‘Because of her Western contacts Exter was always treated with respect by the Russian avant-garde and was ofen consulted as an authority on Western developments’ (Women Artists of Russia's New Age, 1990).

Exter's early paintings were influenced by various modernist styles, including Futurism and Cubism, and by 1917 she had arrived at complete abstraction, using interpenetrating, semi-geometrical slabs of colour in a manner that is something like a cross between Delaunay's Orphism and Malevich's Suprematism. From 1917 to 1921 she taught at her own studios, first in Odessa (1917–18) and then in Kiev (1918–21). Her pupils, who included Pavel Tchelitchew, helped her to create huge abstract designs for agit-steamers (propaganda boats) and agittrains, which the new Soviet government used to celebrate the Russian Revolution and spread knowledge of it (see AGITPROP ART). Her most impressive and original work, however, was as a stage designer, particularly for Alexander Tairov's Kamerny (Chamber) Theatre in Moscow between 1916 and 1921. In powerful Constructivist sets she explored the architectural potential of the stage through what she called ‘the dynamic use of immobile form', avoiding traditional decorative illusionism on the one hand and flat stylization on the other. Perhaps her most famous set design is for Romeo and Juliet (1921), in which she pioneered multi-level staging; the set was ‘conceived as a dynamic three-dimensional construction comprising ladders, platforms, rails, and inclined planes which were brought to life by their bold intersection and the bright colours of the beams of light which played on them. The various vertical levels of the set were transformed into different locations by the rapid furling and unfurling of curtains’ (Yablonskaya). Exter also designed Constructivist costumes (made from ‘industrial materials') for the science fiction film Aelita (1923). Her friend the poet Benedikt Livshits called her an ‘Amazon of the avant-garde'.

In 1924 Exter settled in Paris, and she lived in France for the rest of her life. She earned part of her living from teaching (at her friend Léger's school and in her own studio), but in her later career she was mainly active as a theatre, ballet, and fashion designer. She also made witty marionettes (for an unrealized film), using a variety of materials and motifs drawn from Cubism and Suprematism. A good collection of her drawings for stage designs is in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.