Tea cup ballet is a 1935 photograph by Australian modernist

Modernism

Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...

 photographer Olive Cotton

Olive Cotton

Olive Cotton was a pioneering Australian modernist female photographer of the 1930s and 40s working in Sydney. As a female photographer in Australia of that era, she was overlooked and her work at the Dupain studio was considered "art" rather than commercial. Cotton only became a national "name"...

. It is arguably Cotton's best known work. The photographs depicts six tea cups and saucers lit so to form shadows that suggest the form of ballet

Ballet

Ballet is a type of performance dance, that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century, and which was further developed in France and Russia as a concert dance form. The early portions preceded the invention of the proscenium stage and were presented in large chambers with...

 dancers.
The photograph was exhibited in the London Salon of Photography in 1935, the first work of Cotton's to be shown outside Australia.

The work was featured on an Australia Post

Australia Post

Australia Post is the trading name of the Australian Government-owned Australian Postal Corporation .-History:...

stamp in 1991 commemorating 150 years of photography.

External links

• Tea cup ballet - Art Gallery of New South Wales