Set design for Shakespeare's Othello, Act 1

Alexandra Exter|Editions des Quatre Chemins|William Shakespeare

1930 · Pochoir; from an edition of 160 · Drawings and Prints

This print encapsulates Exter’s design for the opening scene of Shakespeare’s Othello and comes from a group of prints that distills her innovative ideas. As an influential modernist painter and stage designer, the artist moved between her native Russia, Germany, and France before settling in Paris, where she taught at the Académie de l’Art Moderne. In a radical new approach to staging, colored screens represent Venetian facades, and a spiral stair leads to a lightly indicated balcony outside the room where Desdemona’s father sleeps. Below, Iago and Rodrigo simulate a robbery to wake the senator so they may inform him that his daughter has eloped with Othello.

Artist

Alexandra Exter|Editions des Quatre Chemins|William Shakespeare

Date

1930

Medium

Pochoir; from an edition of 160

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Gift of Nikita D. Lobanov, 1970