An Eccentric Dance. Sketch for the Ballet Miniature of the Choreographer K. Goleizovsky 1922

Anatol Petrytsky made this sketch for the ballet "An Eccentric Dance" using gouache, collage, and ink. It's all about simple shapes, lines and flat colours. There is a lovely tension in this piece, with a colour palette of mostly black and white, and then a splash of red and blue that are layered to create texture through contrast. The shapes almost look collaged together, the way the black triangles push up against the blue forms. It is so striking how the texture and the colour contrast create movement. Note the two figures in motion, each rendered in almost geometric forms, with their positions and props creating a feeling of dynamic and playful interaction. Looking at this work, I'm also reminded of Alexandra Exter, another avant-garde artist who was interested in the intersection of theatre and painting. Just like Exter, Petrytsky invites us to see the world not as a fixed, static image, but as an open-ended process of discovery.