Masquerade

Leonor Fini and Marie-Laure de Noailles © Brassaï

Selon la formulation de Claude Lévi-Strauss, le masque cache autant qu’il révèle et « nie autant qu’il affirme. » Bien souvent détenteur d’un secret, il tait, en effet, ce que seuls les initiés doivent savoir…

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According to Claude Lévi-Strauss, the mask hides as much as it reveals, “denies as much as it affirms.” Silent, it often holds a secret to which only the initiated are privy.

Leonor Fini wearing a feathered mask, Vogue, Unknown photographer, 1946

Masques de Leonor Fini by André Pieyre de Mandiargues, La Parade Éditions André Bonne, Paris, 1951. Photo © André Ostier

Danseurs dans « Les Demoiselles de la Nuit, » 1949. Photo © Brassaï

Ballets russes, 1930. Photo © Horst P. Horst

Danseurs dans  »Les Demoiselles de la Nuit, » 1949. Photo © Brassaï

Dancer with cat mask, paris, 1930′s. Photo © Brassaï

Leonor Fini © André Ostier

Eumenides by Aeschylus, Théâtre du Soleil, Cartoucherie de Vincennes, Paris, France, 1992. Photo © Martine Franck

Masques de Leonor Fini by André Pieyre de Mandiargues, La Parade Éditions André Bonne, Paris, 1951 © André Ostier

Leonor Fini in Nonza, Corse, c.1965 © Eddy Brofferio

Bal des Têtes, Hotel Lambert, Paris, 1956 © André Ostier

Harlequin, 1975 © Werner Rohde

Juliet and Margaret in Papier-Mache Masks, Los Angeles 1942 © Man Ray

The many-headed man, 1981 © Clive Hicks Jenkins

Self-portrait with mask, New York, ca 1958 Erwin Blumenfeld © The Estate of Erwin Blumenfeld

Fish Man in Flic, Flac, 1981 © Clive Hicks Jenkins

Unknown Photographer

Sebastain Droste © Francis Bruguière, 1920′s

Unknowned photographer

Dance Study, 1912. Photo © Baron Adolph de Meyer

Le dictateur, (Minotaure) Central Park South, New York, NY, 1936 Erwin Blumenfeld © The Estate of Erwin Blumenfeld

Woman wearing a mask to the masked ball. Paris, France, July 1946 © David E. Scherman

Designer Jacques Fath wearing headress he will wear to the masked ball,Paris, 1946 © David E. Scherman

Electric Beauty, 1939 © Horst P. Horst

Dancer Myra Kinch with mask, 1930′s

Metamorphosis, New York City Ballet, 1953 © Gjon Mili for LIFE magazine

Harald Kreutzberg performing, Berlin, ca 1930 © Rolf Mahrenholz

Leonor Fini, Unknown, Paris, 1937

La Dénonciation secrète, c.1880 © Vincenzo Giacomelli/Museo di Storia della Fotografia Fratelli Alinari-Fonds Mollino, Florence

Lingerie Chantelle, 1958 © Frank Horvat

Mrs. Benda, wife of the maskmaker, takes off one of her husband’s creations, New York, NY, 29 novembre 1926 © Bettmann/CORBIS

Masks by W.T. Benda © Wendell MacRae

Two Men in White Masks, Cuzco, Peru, 1948 © Irving Penn

© Edward S. Curtis

Untitled, 1970 Diane Arbus © The Estate of Diane Arbus

© Arthur Tress

Chair by Marcel Breuer, Mask by Oskar Schlemmer, Dress by Lis Beyer, 1926 © Erich Consemüller

Mask on rocks © André Kertesz