American Craft – August 01, 2019

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McNay Art Museum

The Tobin Collection

of Theatre Arts

mcnayart.org

Spotlight

Maquettes at

the McNay

stage sets may be the most

eloquent co-stars in any perfor-

mance to never say a word. Yet

as actors, choreographers, light-

ing designers, and others bring

a show to life, sets speak vol-

umes: Does the street where

Boy meets Girl inspire joyful

gestures or fearful whispers?

Is their apartment cozy or night-

marishly claustrophobic?

Because sets might not be

built and installed until rehears-

als are well underway, scene

designers create maquettes:

usually three-dimensional,

dollhouse-size, to-scale render-

ings of their visions for the cast

and crew to refer to. Designers

might use wood, paper, wire,

metal, string, fabric, plastic, pho-

tos, or found objects, incorporat-

ing elements of sculpture,

collage, and assemblage.

Among the 12,000 rare

books, costumes, paintings,

and other objects in the Tobin

Collection of Theatre Arts

at the McNay Art Museum

in San Antonio are about 250

maquettes. Some were made

by designers working strictly

for the stage. Others were craft-

ed by artists for whom scene

design was an in termission in

a fine-art career – among them

Pablo Picasso, Erté, Louise

Nevelson, Fernand Léger,

Jean Cocteau, David Hockney,

and Robert Indiana.

A designer might make sev-

eral maquettes for a show, or

it on stage, designer Anna

Louizos visited the neighbor-

hood, photographed and

sketched the skyline, then cre-

ated a maquette of a crowded

streetscape that lends itself to

everything from exuberant

dance numbers to intimate duets.

Some maquettes are marvel-

ously specific, such as Chris-

tine Jones’s for the musical

Spring Awakening (2006), with

working lights, intricate arched

doorways, and brick walls

embellished with tiny paintings,

portraits, and a chalkboard cov-

ered with legible writing. The

final Broadway set may have

differed from its mini-me in a

few details, but all of its key

elements are present.

Visitors to the McNay can

see selected maquettes in shows

such as this year’s “Picasso

to Hockney: Modern Art on

Stage,” opening in October.

Maquettes are usually displayed

on pedestals within plexiglass

vitrines so visitors can see them

in the round and appreciate all

their details. “People do get

close,” Blackshire says. “Every

now and again, we need to wipe

nose prints off the vitrines.”

In the upcoming show, the

curator’s personal favorite will

be on view: Picasso’s subtly

colored cardboard maquette

for the ballet Le Tricorne, which

is “very different than the por-

traiture or other cubist work

we know from him. As an artist

designing for stage, he tapped

into his softer side.”

For the future, Blackshire

contemplates acquiring work

from more women designers,

as well as contemporary Ameri-

can designers whose work “cap-

tures the growing diversity of

America. I would like to iden-

tify designers who reflect the

spectrum of art lovers we serve –

in San Antonio, the region, the

state, the nation, and beyond.”

~barbara haugen

Barbara Haugen is American

Craft’s shows editor.

just one. “Scene designers must

plan for all settings of the story

and then consider what is need-

ed in those settings,” explains R.

Scott Blackshire, the collection

curator.

For a 1977 production

of Alban Berg’s opera Lulu,

the tale of a young woman’s

descent from wealthy mistress

to impoverished prostitute,

Jocelyn Herbert created a series

of maquettes that begins with

a luxurious interior and ends

above:

Christine Jones’s

elaborately detailed

Maquette for Spring

Awakening (ca. 2006)

has functioning

LED lights.

above left:

Ralph Koltai used

acrylic sheets and

rods to build the

stark Maquette for

The Valkyrie from

The Ring Cycle

(ca. 1970).

left:

Pablo Picasso is

among the well-

known artists who

also designed for

the stage. His mod-

est Maquette for Le

Tricorne (1919) will

be on view at the

McNay Art Museum

in October.

with a stark, shabby room.

“[They] communicate a visual

arc of Lulu’s downfall in life

and allow the singer to imagine

the emotional changes her char-

acter might experience living

in these very different environ-

ments,” Blackshire says.

By contrast, Lin-Manuel

Miranda’s In the Heights (2007)

takes place entirely on one

street in the Washington

Heights neighborhood of

New York City. To render

zoom

20 american craft aug/sept 19