Mark Ryden Designs Sweet Costumes and Set for ABT’s Whipped Cream

We don’t normally associate ballerinas with sweets. But that changes with Whipped Cream, making its New York premiere at the Metropolitan Opera House May 22.

The two-act ballet debuted in Vienna in 1924 as Schlagobers, in which a young boy overdoes it on the confection. The plot stays the same in the current iteration, but it’s now what American Ballet Theatre artistic director Kevin McKenzie calls a “combination of fantasy and surrealism.” That’s due to Mark Ryden, referred to as the forefather of pop surrealism, who created the costume and set designs, the latter a pink-and-white interpretation of a Viennese pastry shop.

See them in 2-D a few blocks south at Paul Kasmin Gallery, where “Mark Ryden: The Art of Whipped Cream” features his paintings, drawings, and sketches of the production, May 20 to June 30.