By Noma Faingold

The Legion of Honor kicks off its yearlong centennial celebration with an almost non-stop weekend of free performances, exhibits, educational talks and art activities, Nov. 9-11.

What should not get lost in deluge of culture is the new exhibition titled, “Dress Rehearsal: The Art of Theatrical Design,” which spotlights costume and set design in the history of theater and dance.

Natalia Lauricella, assistant curator of Prints and Drawings at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF), had one of the largest collections in the United States from which to choose, centuries of delicate, rarely seen drawings and designs by important artists from different eras, including:

• Ballets Russes designer Léon Bakst (1908-1996).

• Avant-garde painters Natalia Sergeevna Goncharova (1881-1962) and Pablo Picasso (1881-1973).

• Cubo-futurist and Art Deco influencer Alexandra Exter (1882-1949).

• French painter/printmaker Marie Laurencin (1883-1956).

• Contemporary Canadian artist Marcel Dzama, best known for designs created for the New York City Ballet and represented by a 2015 work in the Legion show.

“The exhibit is specific, but these are stunning works,” Lauricella said. “I think people will be excited to see it. They are colorful. They are ornate. They are exquisitely drawn by major artists who people might recognize. A lot of artists turned their immense talent in graphic arts to the stage.”

“Dress Rehearsal” is on view in two galleries: Gallery 22 is devoted to more than 50 theater and dance drawings and etchings, while the Logan Gallery provides a counterpoint with books and print portfolios. Visitors can get up-close to material documenting the artistic process, such as a portfolio on rehearsals and training of ballet dancers or of a particular theatrical production.

The exhibition began to take shape years before Stanford University art history lecturer and postdoctoral teaching fellow Lauricella came to the FAMSF in April. The hardest part for Lauricella, who grew up in San Francisco and currently lives in the Inner Sunset District, was narrowing down the hundreds of works on paper in order to tell a story tracing the changes in costume and set design from what she refers to as the “early modern period” to the present.

“We have so many great ones. I wanted to show as much as I could, as far as a chronological timeline, where you can see amazing developments in stage design and tell a very visual story,” she said. “Some works are final products but many are working drawings. It gives you insight into a designer’s or artist’s working method. There’s excitement in the process of creation. Artists are trying to figure out how to bring these designs to life. It’s a little bit of behind the scenes.”

Placing Ballets Russes (1909-1929), the renowned dance company that began in Paris and toured all over the world, at the center of the exhibit is a nod to Alma de Bretteville Spreckels (1881–1968), co-founder of the Legion, who had a passionate interest in works related to the Ballets Russes troupe, which were donated to the museum from her personal collection.

“The centennial of the Legion is a wonderful excuse to finally put this material on view,” Lauricella said.

Upon entering Gallery 22, a tutu designed by Bakst and worn by Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova (1881-1931) is placed dramatically in a clear case, front and center. The costume was worn in performances of the “Dying Swan.”

“Bakst was one of the greatest designers of the 20th century. We have rare drawings by him, which we are also planning to include,” Lauricella said.

“Dress Rehearsal” focuses on a number of female artists, in addition to Exter and Goncharova, including Alice Halika of Poland (1894-1975) American surrealist painter, printmaker, sculptor, writer and poet Dorothea Tanning (1910-2012) and Argentine-Italian surrealist painter, designer and illustrator Leanor Fini (1907-1996).

Several of Ukrainian Exter’s avant-garde pochoir works (hand colored silkscreen printmaking) will be on display. Even though created in the 1930s, the vibrant series of geometric compositions are examples of futuristic set design.

There are also drawings of two modern dance pioneers with local connections, Loie Fuller (1862-1928), who was a friend of Spreckels, and the naturalistic, improvisational Isadora Duncan (1877-1927), who was born and raised in San Francisco.

“The show has a focus on ballet but I was eager to have non-traditional dance styles incorporated,” Lauricella said.

“Dress Rehearsal: The Art of Theatrical Design,” opens Nov. 9 and runs through May 11, 2025, at the Legion of Honor, 100 34th Ave. Centennial weekend, Nov. 9-11, featuring performances, exhibitions and art activities, is free. Learn more at famsf.org.