Lot 616 D

The photograph shows a scene from the ballet piece "The Green Table. A Dance of Death in Eight Scenes". For the choreography Kurt Jooss, the director of the experimental Folkwang Tanzbühne and co-founder of the Folkwang School, was awarded the 1st prize at the International Choreography Competition in Paris in 1932.

Albert Renger-Patzsch, who had been working in Essen since 1929 and had a great interest in dance theater, documented the rehearsals for the premiere of the piece. The present shot shows the somber atmosphere of the first scene with the meeting of the 'Black Gentlemen', a uniform group of diplomats in tailcoats, who, with their grotesque masks and pathetic poses, embody the failure of diplomacy.