Stage design (1927)

He studied engineering in Budapest, but after seeing his drawings, József Rippl-Rónai directed his attention to an artistic career. During World War I, he spent an extended period as a prisoner of war in Siberia. It was during this time that he made his first non-figurative drawings. From 1923 until the advent of Nazism, he lived in Berlin, where he worked as a draughtsman and set designer at the City Theatre. Moving to Paris, he was set and costume designer for the Opera from 1931 to 1953. He is credited with the idea and technical development of the projected set, which was first used for the revival of The Damnation of Faust in 1931 and was used in this form for the next thirty years. His most significant stage work was his own production of The Birth of Colours, set to music by Honegger and libretto by R. Morax. 

After leaving the Paris Opera, he was invited to many of the world's great musical theatres, including La Scala in Milan, the Vienna Opera and the Rome Opera. In parallel with his theatrical activities, he also pursued a significant painting career. In 1932, he joined the Society of Musical Artists, then founded by Henry Valensi, with whom he took part in numerous group exhibitions. Like his fellow artists, he sought a link between music and the visual arts. His paintings, sometimes swirling, sometimes volcanically erupting, sometimes with a calm rhythm, but especially his pastels, reveal a fantastic world that tends towards mysticism. One of his outstanding Symphony series is in the collection of the Musée d'Art Moderne in Paris, while another, Symphony No. X, is in the Hungarian National Gallery. 

In his paintings, Ernő Klausz has always been interested in the ability to give emotional meaning to colours and lines that depict an inexpressible object. He has always been interested in spectacle, in creating surprises and effects. His projected scenery idea was a huge success. As you can see from his stage design, all it took was a clever lighting scheme and a homogeneous background to enhance the figures and create a dramatic effect.