The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts

Introduction

C. Raymond Johnson's design
for the Chicago Little Theatre's
Medea program, 1918. –Billy
RoseTheatre Collection, NYPL

American artists have long been moved by the august cultures of ancient Greece. Motivated by the enlightened minds that produced works of incomparable beauty and emotional resonance, the creative artists in turn gleefully discarded rules and radically redefined their art forms.

Mirrors to the Past draws on rare material housed in the Research Divisions of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. The liberating force of archaic and classical Greece was adopted as inspiration by 20th century American choreographers, theater artists, composers, visual artists, and designers, represented in the exhibition.