Scope and arrangement
The Rouben Ter-Arutunian design portfolios are a comprehensive reflection of the artist's prolific forty-year career designing for theater, ballet, dance, opera, television, and motion picture productions around the world. The collection is made up predominantly of two-dimensional artwork, but also includes three-dimensional objects. The portfolios were assembled by Ter-Arutunian and remain as he envisioned them with all manners of different, but related, materials mostly gathered together under a production's title. Ter-Arutunian's proliferant artistic output is epitomized by the sheer volume of his collection that includes approximately 7,000 designs of scenery, costumes, and artwork, with over 1,000 designs for New York City Ballet productions. In addition, for most productions, there are complete technical drawings and stage plans, notes, photographs, programs, reviews, posters, and models.
There are also examples of Ter-Artunian's earliest work produced in Berlin and Paris, prior to his immigration to the United States in 1951, and illustrates his diverse career as a designer for advertising, jewelry, opera, dance, and theater. Ter-Arutunian's most enduring client was New York City Ballet for which he designed sets and costumes for some of George Balanchine's most significant ballets particularly The Nutcracker. The collection also includes designs from his decades-long collaborations with many directors, choreographers, performing artists, and composers including Tony Richardson, Gian Carlo Menotti, Glen Tetley, Robert Joffrey, Marlene Dietrich, Hans Werner Henze, and Igor Stravinsky.
Ter-Arutunian was also known for his unconventional use of common craft and household materials to articulate his creative vision in his set designs and models. He regularly used colorful and textural materials such as paper doilies, wooden dowels, metallic paper, cardboard, balsa wood, string, cellophane tape, and tissue paper. These visual elements can be found throughout the entire collection of portfolios particulary the set models, model pieces, and drop designs.
The portfolios were arranged by Ter-Arutunian into broad categories of the performing arts: drama, musicals, opera (including individual companies), television, motion pictures, dance (including individual choreographers and companies, with a large portion devoted to New York City Ballet), individual cities (Berlin, Paris, New York), and some personal and school work.
The collection is arranged into ten Series that are arranged alphabetically by production title or subject. Design elements for individual titles sometimes appear in more than one portfolio as the designer would repurpose designs for later productions.
Each design portfolio contains a wide breadth of material that consists of (but is not limited to) preliminary set sketches; scenic designs; costume designs and fabric swatches; set models and pieces; press and advertising material; photographs; production and design notes; technical drawings and stage plans; business documentation; correspondence; and research and reference material. Select productions also hold costumes and fully realized set props used in past productions.
The dimensions for set models and other 3-D objects are measured length by width by height.
The Rouben Ter-Arutunian design portfolios are arranged in ten series:
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1956-1985
Series I encompasses the design portfolios for plays and dramatic theater performances dating from the mid-1950s through the mid-1980s. This series covers Broadway performances, festivals, and European productions. The series is arranged alphabetically by production title.
There is a significant amount of material created for the American Shakespeare Festival which Ter-Arutunian participated in from 1956 to 1961. Numerous design are included for the productions of Twelfth Night, Antony and Cleopatra, The Merchant of Venice, and Much Ado About Nothing.
Also present is a large quantity of design documentation for the play Arturo Ui (1963), an allegorical and satirical play written by Bertolt Brecht about the rise of Hitler and the Nazi party. For this production, Ter-Arutunian received a Tony nomination for Best Costume Design.
Another production of particular significance is the Greek tragedy Medea from 1966 which starred Italian actress Anna Magnani and premiered in Rome. The portfolios includes photographs; ephemera; costume designs specifically made for Magnani; and a three-dimensional set model depicting fire.
Types of materials that appear frequently throughout the Series are set and costume designs; photographs; theater plans; technical drawings; set models and set model pieces; correspondence and notes; and fabric swatches.
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1950-1979
Series II comprises the design portfolios for musical theater productions from 1950 through 1979. The files are arranged alphabetically by production title.
The portfolios include a plethora of material for Ter-Arutunian's Broadway debut, George Abbott's 1957 hit, New Girl in Town, starring Gwen Verdon. These files include set designs; a set model and set pieces; costume designs; publicity posters; programs; wallpaper and drop designs; and technical drawings.
Also of note are the costume designs for Redhead from 1959 (also starring Gwen Verdon), which earned Ter-Arutunian his first Tony Award for Best Costume Design.
The designs for Hot Spot (1962) also feature two detailed set models encased in plexiglass boxes depicting a kitchen and a room interior.
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1943-1986
Series III consists of design portfolios for operatic works dating from 1968 through 1983, primarily of productions in the United States and across Europe. The files are arranged alphabetically by production title or company.
Four Saints in Three Acts (1986) represents a significant portion of the Series and includes a wide spectrum of material. The porfolio's inclusion of costumes and fully realized set pieces distinguishes it from others. The costumes include halo design mock-ups, white robes, and two dresses worn by actresses Cassandra Hayes and Lila Ammons. The fully realized set pieces include a large sculpture constructed of rubber gloves attached to a wooden structure, and four sculptures constructed of toothbrushes embedded in acrylic and plexiglass.
Another highlight are designs for Hansel and Gretel (1953) which was one of Ter-Arutunian's earliest operas produced in the United States. Of note are two set models, one of which depicts the exterior of the witch's infamous gingerbread-laden house, while the other depicts the kitchen interior of the house.
Ter-Arutunian designed scenery and costumes for a newly conceived choregraphy of Orpheus by George Balanchine in 1963. The portfolios hold several framed two-dimensional scenic designs as well as a framed set of four costumes depicting Eurydice, Orpheus, the Furies, and the Spirits.
There are several portfolios dedicated to Ter-Arutunian's work for the Santa Fe Opera including extensive designs and set models for Der Liebe de Danae (1982-1983) and The Devils of Loudun (1969).
This Series also features designs created for the Spoleto Festival which was founded by composer and collaborator Gian Carlo Menotti in Spoleto, Italy. Ter-Arutunian created designs for the inaugural festival in 1958 and subsequently in 1966 and 1970.
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1950-1977
Series IV details some of the earliest costume and set design work that Ter-Arutunian created for major broadcast events and episodic television programs dating from 1950 through 1977.
Most of the designs created were for productions that aired on CBS and NBC. His designs for NBC include those for the NBC Opera Theatre from 1954 to 1955 and the Bell Telephone Hour. Between 1958 and 1966, Ter-Arutunian produced set and costume designs for nine Bell Telephone Hour productions including specials featuring Harry Belafonte (1958) and Balanchine's Stars and Stripes and Souvenirs (1959).
Of note are his designs for Twelfth Night which earned him an Emmy Award for Best Art Direction in 1957. There are several files pertaining to the production of Balanchine's Noah and the Flood that was produced by and aired on CBS-TV. These contain production notes; fabric swatches; music scores; blueprints; and sketches of composer Igor Stravinsky.
Other noteworthy productions are Marlene Dietrich's 1972 special I Wish You Love which includes sketches of the actress by fashion illustrator René Bouché; designs made for a special telecast to introduce and advertise RCA's new 21" color television called 21" Color Tube; and production designs for Swing Into Spring!, a music showcase featuring Benny Goodman and his orchestra, Peggy Lee, Ella Fitzgerald, Lionel Hampton, and The Hi-Los among several other performers.
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1965-1992
Series V chronicles Ter-Arutunian's design contributions to cinema. The most notable designs are for the 1993 motion picture production of The Nutcracker which starred Macaulay Culkin and principal dancers from the New York City Ballet. Ter-Arutunian modified the original designs from New York City Ballet's production of The Nutcracker to form the basis of the film's scenery.
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1940-1991
This Series comprises design portfolios for dance productions and events from 1940 through 1988 and are arranged alphabetically by production title or, in a few cases, company name.
There are five subseries that cover Ter-Arutunian's frequent collaborations with choreographers and companies such as Glen Tetley, Joffrey Ballet, John Butler, Makarova and Company, and New York City Ballet.
The remaining portfolios represent productions performed by a variety of companies including Paul Taylor Dance Company, San Francisco Ballet, Dance Theatre of Harlem, American Ballet Theatre, and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater among many others.
Materials that frequently reappear in each portfolio are set designs; photographs; costume designs; technical drawings; set models with corresponding pieces; production notes; fabric samples; and prop designs.
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1949-1991
This Series represents a selection of designs that Ter-Arutunian exhibited at the New York City Ballet Gallery from 1989 through 1992. Each file includes an inventory list with details of each design.
Designs featured at the gallery are from: Adagio Lamentoso, Ballet Imperial, Cortège Hongrois, Harlequinade, Song of the Nightingale, Souvenir of Florence, Tricolore, and Vienna Waltzes.
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1953-1993
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1920-1988
This Series contains personal artwork and drawings from overseas trips, as well as heirloom family photographs, collected press, and autobiographies written by Ter-Arutunian.
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1927-1986
This Series traces Ter-Arutunian's earliest artwork from childhood through his formative years at the Schule Reimann in Berlin, his brief stint in Paris, and his eventual immigration to New York City.
His earliest commissioned set designs for productions of The Bartered Bride and Salome are filed under Berlin.
The Paris files take account of Ter-Arutunian's brief time spent living and working in the French city which includes artwork made in his leisure time as well as designs for Ballets David Lichine and L'Opéra-Comique.
The New York files detail Ter-Arutunian's early life in New York City, namely designing jewelry for Harry Winston and creating window displays for department stores.