Alexandra Ekster (1882-1949)

Ekster's designs were very warmly received when she showed them in 1927 at the Galerie aux Quatre Chemins, Paris. 'Alexandra Ekster's exhibition demonstrates her very great talent', wrote André Boll in a contemporary review; 'her conceptions reflect that thirst for originality which presides over the renewal of stage design in the USSR' (quoted in: Chauvelin, p. 305). Many of her remarkable designs consider the role and essence of light and create what Chauvelin terms 'Light Sculptures' - ethereal constructions which at once define and elude space; objects on the edge of Materiality, 'almost mythical objects, at least as close to Suprematism than to Constructivism, which had been their starting point. Ekster had thus solved the fundamental contradiction of the Russian avant-garde' (Chauvelin, p. 307).