GLADKY (Serge) - SALMON (André). Synthèse du costume théâtral. Paris : Le Théâtre mondial, [1927]. - In-4, 330 x 250: (8 ff.) 32 plates, illustrated cover. Paperback, lined cover. Unique first edition, printed in an edition of 170 copies on strong laid paper (no. 11), of this collection illustrated with 33 compositions by Russian-born painter Serge GLADKY (1886-1966), prefaced by André Salmon (1881-1969). An architect, designer and graphic artist, he was a key figure in the Cubist and Art Deco movements, as well as a precursor of abstract modern art. He composed ornamental motifs based on geometric shapes and used the stencil technique for his prints, in reaction to industrial techniques whose colors he considered dull. "Knowing all there is to know about Cubism, I admire the Russian artist all the more for having taken from it everything that enables him to recreate, in time and space, in the hour and in the eternal, his distant homeland, composing costumes that are so many decorative absolutes. This is not, however, some decorative algebra. Serge Gladky's truly marvellous, in the truest sense of the word, miraculous inventions are, for the first time, harmonious syntheses of local tone and appropriate movement. I don't think it's possible to say in fewer words that Serge Gladky's human enchantments appear to us as the most accurate interpretation of a world without equivalent in our universe" (Introduction by André Salmon). A very good copy, very rare in this fresh condition. A few scattered brown spots, not serious.