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He is the author of the widely-acclaimed biography Diaghilev, A Life (translated into English by Jane Hedley-Prole and Steve Leinbach) which was published in six languages and hailed almost unanimously as the definitive life of Diaghilev. It sold more than 45,000 copies.

Sjeng Scheijen

Scheyen dispels some tenacious rumours, from the size of Diaghilev’s head at birth (purportedly the cause of his mother’s death) to his tumultuous relationship with Nijinsky, who was perhaps less a victim of Diaghilev’s stifling possessiveness than we have been led to believe. He paints an intimate portrait, drawing upon previously unknown letters written by Diaghilev to his stepmother, which reveal a more gentle, loving and anxious side to him.Finally, new archival research provides harrowing details about the persecution of his relatives in the Soviet Union and his attempts, from exile in France, to save his family from imprisonment – a tragic finale to a life that was in every respect dramatic and colourful.It is astonishing how Diaghilev’s discerning eye for talent led him to commission work from some of the world’s greatest artists: foremost among them the composers Ravel, Debussy, Satie, Stravinsky and Prokofiev; the artists Picasso, Matisse, Braque and Cocteau; the choreographers Massine, Nijinsky and Balanchine. Scheyen minutely reconstructs the tumultuous opening night of the Ballets Russes’ first production, Le Pavillion d’Armide, and the disastrous premiere of Le Sacre du Printemps, which was allegedly broken up by the police.Diaghilev’s despotism led to incessant squabbling and agitation at the Ballet Russes. Scheyen makes palpable the strength and virtuosity required of Diaghilev in producing pioneering performances in continental Europe year after year. Cut off from revolutionary Russia, plagued by debts and frequently unhappy in love, Diaghilev’s devotion to detail and unrelenting drive to reach new heights of dramatic expression are clear testimony to his monumental talent.As Scheyen demonstrates, it was precisely this unbridled energy, along with his uncompromising attitude towards aesthetics and his belief in the superiority of art to life, that enabled Diaghilev to leave a lasting impression on the cultural history of Europe.<ul><li>Draws on previously unknown letters, telegrams, diaries, newspapers clippings and other valuable biographical material.</li><li>Photographs published here for the first time, discovered in Russian archives and private collections.</li></ul>

Scheijen masterfully recounts the phenomenal way in which Diaghilev contrived, under virtually impossible circumstances, to nurture a sequence of works […] he triumphs in making clear the degree to which, despite the cosmopolitanism of so much of the work, Russia was at the core of Diaghilev.

The parade of great dancers, composers, and artists through Diaghilev’s life give this book the sweep of a Russian novel with a fascinating, brilliant, and complex protagonist who, according to the author, lived a very public life, but kept his most intimate feelings hidden.

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Sergei Diaghilev

As founder of the exotic Ballets Russes in 1909 and father of modern dance theatre, Sergei Diaghilev has gained legendary status as one of the most influential artistic pioneers of the twentieth century. In this comprehensive biography Sjeng Scheyen sheds fresh light on his life and achievements, peeling away the shrouds of myth that surround him.

In April 1918, just five months after the Russian Revolution, Kazimir Malevich, Marc Chagall, Wassily Kandinsky and Vladimir Tatlin became powerful officials within the new ‘People’s Commissariat of Enlightenment’.The old regime had rejected these notorious figures, who in the years before the revolution, had established themselves as the most innovative artists in Europe. Now they were assigned to transform entire inner cities with their murals, posters, installations and performances. Setting up modern art museums across the country, they dispatched their radical, often abstract artworks to the remotest regions. They rigorously reformed art academies, developing new pedagogical systems that would influence the Bauhaus and other major new art institutions. Tatlin presented his pioneering installation, the Monument to the IIIrd International; Malevich his series of White on White paintings, works of daring originality.But less than a year later, opposition to the avant-gardists rose. Once the Bolsheviks grasped the groundbreaking eccentricity of their ideas, they branded the artists charlatans who ‘infuse[d] decayed poison into the healthy nature of the proletariat’.The avant-gardists’ aim of bringing ‘Art into Life’ was not in line with the Bolshevik interpretation of a revolutionary culture. The new rulers, instead, wanted to use art as a tool for entertainment and propaganda of the masses. Before long, the avant-gardists were ejected from their powerful positions. Chagall and Kandinsky emigrated, Malevich was imprisoned. Those who stayed desperately tried to maintain their former standing. Some adapted to the demands of the new system, some tried to preserve a small haven of artistic freedom, but ultimately all were marginalized. Sjeng Scheijen calls on an unprecedent-ed number of often unpublished letters, diaries, and remembrances (often from inaccessible Russian archives or libraries) to produce a vibrant, touching portrayal of these phenomenal artists.

De avant-gardisten

The first book to describe in full the history of the complex relationship between a group of leading avant-garde artists and the Soviet state. Related from the personal perspective of the artists, it is part group biography, part cultural history. The result is a quintessentially twentieth-century tale about the rise and fall of a small number of extraordinary talented people trying to navigate the political turmoil of a new state.

The Avant-Gardists

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