Lincoln Kirstein and User talk:69.115.162.176: Difference between pages

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[[Image:Kirstein.gif|200px|thumb|right|Photograph of Lincoln Kirstein<br> taken by<br> [[George Platt Lines]].]]

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'''Lincoln Kirstein''' ([[May 4]], [[1906]] - [[January 5]], [[1996]]) was an [[American]] [[writer]], [[impresario]], [[choreographer]], art [[connoisseur]], and cultural figure in [[New York City]], famous less for his own artistic achievement than for his generally positive social influence.

Born in [[Rochester, New York]] to a very [[wealth]]y [[Boston]]ian family, he was educated at [[Harvard University|Harvard]]. His father was chairman of [[Filene's Department Store]], in Boston, and his mother was the daughter of a successful clothing manufacturer in Rochester, New York.

His interest in [[ballet]] and [[George Balanchine]] started when he had seen "Apollo" with the Diaghilev Ballet. He became determined to get Balanchine to [[United States|America]]. Together with [[Edward M. M. Warburg]] (a classmate from Harvard), they started the School of American Ballet in [[Hartford, Connecticut]] in October [[1933]]. The studio moved to the fourth floor of a building at [[Madison Avenue (Manhattan)|Madison Avenue]] and 59th Street in New York City in [[1934]]. Warburg's father invited the group of students from the evening class to perform at a private party. The ballet they did was "Serenade", the first major ballet choreographed by Balanchine in America. Just months later Kirstein and Warburg founded, together with Balanchine and Dimitriev, The American Ballet.

This would become the resident company of the [[Metropolitan Opera]], but this proved unsatisfactory because the Opera would not allow Balanchine and Kirstein artistic freedom. In 1946, Balanchine and Kirstein founded the Ballet Society, renamed the [[New York City Ballet]] in [[1948]]. Together they made this one of the most innovative dance companies in the world.

His [[eclectic]] interests, ambition and keen interest in high culture, funded by independent means drew a large circle of friends which would stimulate [[creativity]] in many of the arts. These included: [[Glenway Wescott]], [[Monroe Wheeler]], [[George Platt Lynes]], [[Jared French]], [[Bernard Perlin]], [[Pavel Tchelitchev]], [[Katherine Anne Porter]], [[Barbara Harrison]], [[Gertrude Stein]], [[Jensen Yow]], [[Jonathan Tichenor]], [[Cecil Beaton]], [[Jean Cocteau]], [[George Tooker]], [[Margaret French]] and far too many more to name.

He was married in [[1940]] to [[Fidelma Cadmus]], some say because he was in love with her brother [[Paul Cadmus]]. While his wife and he enjoyed an amicable relationship, he continued to pursue affairs with other men. The New York art world, considered his pursuit of men an "open secret," although he did not publicly acknowledge his [[sexual orientation]] until [[1982]].

He was the primary [[patron]] of Cadmus and purchased many of his paintings and subsidized his living expenses. Cadmus had difficulty selling his work through galleries because of the [[erotic]]ally charged depictions of working and middle class men which provoked great controversy.

English critic, [[Celement Crisp]], wrote:&#8212;

:"He was one of those rare talents who touch the entire artistic life of their time. Ballet, film, literature, theatre, painting, sculptor, photography all occupied his attention."

Kirstein commissioned and helped to fund the physical home of the New York City Ballet: the [[New York State Theater]] building at [[Lincoln Center]], designed in 1964 by gay [[architect]] [[Philip Johnson]] (1906-2005). Despite its [[conservatism|conservative]] [[modernism|modernist]] exterior, the glittery red and gold interior recalls the imaginative and lavish backdrops of the [[Ballets Russes]]. He would serve as the general director of the ballet company from [[1948]] to [[1989]].

Their collaboration lasted until Balanchine's death in [[1983]]. President [[Ronald Reagan]] on [[March 26]], [[1984]] presented him with the [[Presidential Medal of Freedom]].

Kirstein was a great collector, and early in the history of the [[Dance Collection]] gave the [[The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts]] a wealth of rare dance materials. Before his death in [[1996]], he donated all his papers, artworks, and other materials related to the history of dance and his life in the arts. These treasures in the Kirstein collection will be available to inform future generations pursuing the knowledge of dance.

He exerted his greatest influence in the [[1940s]].

==Broadway Credits==

* The Saint of Bleecker Street [Original, Play, Drama, Play with music] Production Supervisor Dec 27, 1954 - Apr 2, 1955

* Misalliance [Revival, Play, Comedy] New York City Drama Company Managing Director Mar 6, 1953 - Jun 27, 1953

* The Ballet Caravan - Billy the Kid - Air and Variations - Pocahontas

Libretto and Directed by Lincoln Kirstein May 24, 1939 - [unknown]

* Filling Station [Original, Musical, Ballet, One Act] Directed by Lincoln Kirstein May 18, 1939 - May 1939

==Books==

* Dance (1935) - a compendious history

* Ballet Alphabet (1939)

* The Classic Ballet, Basic Technique and Terminology (with Muriel Stuart, 1952)

* Movement and Metaphor (1970)

* The New York City Ballet (1973) Random House

* Rhymes of a Pfc (1981) David R Godine

* Ballet: Bias and Belief (1983)

* Quarry - A collection in lieu of Memoirs (1986) Twelvetrees

* The Poems of Lincoln Kirstein (1987) Atheneum

* Pavel Tchelitchev (1994) Twelvetrees

==References==

* [[David Leddick]] (2000) Intimate Companions : A Triography of George Platt Lynes, Paul Cadmus, Lincoln Kirstein, and Their Circle

{{lived|b=1906|d=1996|key=Kirstein, Lincoln}}

[[Category:Socialites|Kirstein, Lincoln]]

[[Category:American art collectors|Kirstein, Lincoln]]

[[Category:U.S. philanthropists|Kirstein, Lincoln]]

[[Category:People from New York City|Kirstein, Lincoln]]

[[Category:Ballet choreographers|Kirstein, Lincoln]]

[[Category:American writers|Kirstein, Lincoln]]

[[Category:Gay, lesbian or bisexual people|Kirstein, Lincoln]]

[[Category:Bisexual writers|Kirstein, Lincoln]]

[[Category:National Medal of Arts recipients|Kirstein, Lincoln]]

[[Category:ISBN needed]]