Into The Night review by Ifan Llewelyn
★★★★☆
We live our lives in three broad categories of places. The home, the workplace and wherever we choose to spend our idle hours. When it comes to Modern art, the first of these two have been done to death, with the artist’s home often being converted to monolithic shrines to their career and their studio space through which to understand them. The third space has often been neglected until now. Into the Night: Cabaret and Clubs in Modern Art gives overdue attention to where the art-makers went to socialise, be entertained and be inspired. Not only displaying the ephemera that defined these spaces, here the cabaret clubs of yore are astutely resurrected.
Taking a global approach, in addition to the expected cabarets of Montmartre and the Weimar Republic, Into The Night also stretches to the clubs of ‘60s Nigeria and Tehran. Each club and cabaret is wildly different, but share an artistic innovation, each developing their own distinct visual language. The boundaries between modes of creativity blur in these places, with the clubs of Harlem marrying music and literature and Mexico City’s Café de Nadie bringing together the radical poetry of Manuel Maples Arce and a crop of creatives that would start a revolution.
The exhibition’s most familiar work is the infamous Chat Noir poster that has come to embody the lurking mysteries of bohemian nineteenth-century Montmartre. Théophile Alexandre Steinlen’s black cat perching is plastered all over Paris and the bedroom walls of indie teenage girls with fantasies of life à la Parisienne. Unlike the poster, the story of the cabaret club it advertises somehow fallen by the wayside of history. Here we’re given some much-needed context. The club’s investment in emerging performers, neoclassical and Japanese curiosities and its role in early cinema amounts to a lot more than a disgruntled-looking cat on a naff key ring. The Henri Rivière’s shadow puppetry that was one of the club’s major draw takes centre stage, with the zinc silhouettes used in the shows themselves hanging throughout.
Though architecture might not be at the forefront of your mind when thinking of these creative spaces, the attention given to it throughout the exhibition has you pausing to consider it. 1928 Strasbourg’s L’Aubette created by pioneering modernists Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Jean (Hans) Arp and De Stijl brings to light the ambition of these art-makers. The interior of the military-barracks turned artistic hub exudes enthusiasm in the new. The radical designs and use of colour feels a world away from our ideas of the tea-stained late ‘20s. We’re able to step into their design thanks to a re-creation, with a grainy projection of Theo Van Doesburg’s Ciné-dancing reminding you how remarkably new the design feels.
The most ambitious room of the exhibition, a re-creation of Cabaret Fledermaus, is a real achievement. A space unapologetically drowning in colour and character. Over 7000 glossy tiles cover the walls, each paid meticulous attention depicting fantastical motifs. Standing in the space you understand how it drew artists from across Europe looking to sip a “Pick Me Up” from the “fancy drinks” listed on the menu.
Into the Night : Cabarets and Clubs in Modern Art is running at the Barbican Centre EC2Y 8DS until 19thJanuary. Barbican.org.uk