Merce Cunningham: Common Time | Extended Labels
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Merce Cunningham: Common Time | Extended Labels Robert Rauschenberg (American, 1925-2008) Selected costumes for Antic Meet, 1958 Cotton nightgown, lace camisole, tattooed tank tops, cotton tank hoop shirts, wool sweater, and parachute dresses The dance Antic Meet (see video on opposite wall) comprised ten brief comic sketches that drew on Merce Cunningham’s early training in vaudeville and his talent for mime. Much of the satirical work’s choreography evoked the dramatic posturing associated with Martha Graham’s work. Along with Summerspace (1958/77), also on view in this gallery, Antic Meet was developed for Cunningham’s first major residency at the prestigious American Dance Festival. Robert Rauschenberg, the then artistic director of Cunningham’s dance company, designed both the décor and costumes. Décor for Antic Meet, 1958 Sunglasses, tablecloth, napkin, feather-duster bouquet, silverware, chair with straps, wood table, and door Rauschenberg’s and Cunningham’s interest in everyday things led to their use of simple props as décor, including a chair that Cunningham wore on his back during a duet with company member Carolyn Brown, for which she wore the lacy Victorian nightgown on view. Cunningham’s costumes also included a long, mangy raccoon coat, workman’s coveralls, and a sweater with four sleeves and no neckhole. The women wore lace camisoles over leotards and fluffy white dresses made from silk parachutes purchased at a military surplus store. Robert Rauschenberg Décor for Summerspace, 1958/77 Enamel on canvas Costumes for Summerspace, 1958 Painted nylon leotards and tights In 1958 the Merce Cunningham Dance Company was asked to participate in a summer residency at the prestigious American Dance Festival, which traces its roots back to 1934, when modern dance was taking hold in the United States. This represented a hard-won vote of acceptance for the five-year-old company, and in response, Cunningham developed two new dances: Summerspace and Antic 1 [Continued] Meet (also on view in this exhibition). The designer for these dances was Robert Rauschenberg, the leading visual artist who had begun his relationship with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company in the early 1950s. Cunningham noted in a letter to Rauschenberg that Summerspace seemed to be dealing with “people and velocities.” He wrote, “I have the feeling it’s like looking at part of an enormous landscape and you can only see the action in this particular portion of it,” concluding, “One thing I can tell you about this dance is it has no center.” From these tidbits of description, Rauschenberg designed an abstract backdrop and set of costumes, which he and his friend, fellow artist Jasper Johns, executed using Day-Glo spray paints and a stencil. No image Morton Feldman (American, 1926-87) Ixion, 1958 For chamber ensemble, two-piano version performed by John Cage and David Tudor, 20 minutes, 21 seconds The music you are hearing is by Morton Feldman, who was commissioned by Merce Cunningham to create the score for the dance Summerspace (1958/77). Feldman was associated with the experimental New York School of composers, a group that formed around experimental composer and musician John Cage in the early 1950s. Feldman shared Cage’s interest in an indeterminate, open- form music that was not based in traditional harmonic structures. The score for Ixion indicates how many sounds should be made in a given amount of time and whether they should be played in the high or low registers of the instrument, but it leaves the choice of specific notes up to the performers, here on piano, composers John Cage and David Tudor, both long associated with the dance company. Frank Stella (American, b. 1936) Décor for Scramble, 1967 Aluminum, colored canvas covers, wood, and steel Frank Stella’s décor for Scramble, which premiered at the 1967 Ravinia Festival, consists of six single-color canvas banners stretched between metal poles. The dancers wheeled the structures onstage at the beginning of each performance. Because the choreography comprised eighteen interchangeable sections whose order was determined by chance operations each time Scramble was performed, the panels were placed in different configurations. The arrangement on view here allowed the dancers the maximum open space onstage. This décor has been described as “one of his stripe paintings cut up 2 [Continued] and distributed in space” and, as such, is reminiscent of Stella’s early color studies. It also serves as a precursor to his Protractor series. Toshi Ichiyanagi (Japanese, b. 1933) Activities for Orchestra, 1962 Performed by David Behrman, John Cage, Malcolm Goldstein, Gordon Mumma, Max Neuhaus, and David Tudor, 24 minutes, 9 seconds Toshi Ichiyanagi, a leading figure in the avant-garde Japanese music scene of the early 1960s, composed Activities for Orchestra as the score for the dance Scramble (1967), which featured décor by Frank Stella. Ichiyanagi had been associated with Merce Cunningham Dance Company as a musician for a number of months before being asked to write this score, which is for a combination of Western acoustic instruments and live electronics. The piece is indeterminate, that is, not played in the same determined way each time it is performed. Instead the musicians are asked to perform multiple “activities” according to cued sequences that are scrambled during each performance. Frank Stella (American, b. 1936) C Type, 1968 Acrylic on canvas C Type represents Frank Stella’s early period immediately after he designed the décor for Scramble (on view on the adjacent wall), which premiered in 1967. These paintings feature simple geometric forms that resemble protractors, instruments for measuring angles. Stella’s work with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company on Scramble demonstrates an alignment between the two artists. Cunningham described his choreography as “what is seen is what it is,” echoing Stella’s characterization of his own work: “My painting is based on the fact that only what can be seen there is there.” Using just five colors, Stella achieved a range of depth, as he did with the six colored banners he designed for the Scramble décor. Frank Stella Anderstorp (XI, 3x-tycore), 1981 Mixed media on Tycore Frank Stella made his name in the 1960s with minimal geometric works, such as C Type (1968), but in the following decades moved on to create vibrant, structurally intricate paintings that literally bring the image off the wall and out into space. Inspired by the shapes of 3 [Continued] automobile racetracks, this work takes its name from the Anderstorp Racing Circuit in Sweden. The painting can also be seen as mimicking the circuitous movements of dancers across a stage. Charles Atlas (American, b. 1949) MC9, 2012 Nine-channel synchronized video installation (color, sound) 18 minutes Charles Atlas had begun working with Merce Cunningham as a production assistant in 1974. He created MC9 as an homage to the great choreographer, whose long career as a dance revolutionary ended with his 2009 death at age ninety. Atlas’s video work with Merce and the dance company over the years led to seminal advances in the field. These pieces include collaborations in which the camera was choreographed much like the dancers it was capturing. For MC9 — which stands for “Merce Cunningham to the ninth power”—Atlas chose excerpts from more than twenty pieces made in collaboration with Cunningham, including Fractions I (1977), Locale (1979–80) and Channels/Inserts (1982) (both on view in their entirety in this exhibition), and Ocean (2010). He intermixed the dance footage with fields of solid color and inserted vintage film-leader countdowns in order to disrupt the action yet give the dynamic installation the sense of a perpetual beginning. MC9 is presented here for the first time in the United States. Robert Rauschenberg Tantric Geography décor for Travelogue, 1977 Wooden bases with wheels, chairs, metal bicycle rims, fabric sails, rope, and tin cans Costumes for Travelogue, 1977 Fan skirts Robert Rauschenberg’s décor for the dance Travelogue was one of his most ambitious efforts for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. Although he had resigned his position as the artistic director following a physically and emotionally draining 1964 world tour, he kept close ties with the company. Tantric Geography is larger and more complex than his earlier designs, which were portable three- dimensional, mixed media–structures or simple found objects (see the 1958 work Antic Meet, also on view in this exhibition). The changes reflect the company’s growing popularity and the larger venues they 4 [Continued] were commanding by the mid-1970s. The title alludes to Rauschenberg’s trips to Southeast Asia and India, where he was dazzled by traditional Indian silk textiles and fascinated by Hinduism. In addition to the fabric sails, Rauschenberg used brightly colored silk for the costumes, stretching it between cane ribbing to create fanlike skirts, which the dancers opened and closed like birds displaying their feathers. Birdsong and other ambient audio were used in the accompanying music. Bruce Nauman (American, b. 1941) Décor for Tread, 1970 Six industrial fans Merce Cunningham Dance Company artistic director Jasper Johns invited artist Bruce Nauman to create a décor for the dance Tread (1970) after having seen his interactive work Performance Corridor (1969) at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Nauman, who went on to become one of the most important sculptors of the late twentieth century, originally designed a line of ten industrial fans placed downstage and blowing outward, dramatically dividing the performance space from the audience and partially blocking the view of the dancers. The idea for the décor had its roots in Nauman’s 1965 performance as a graduate student at the University of California, Irvine. He had projected a film loop of himself performing a simple action while a fan on a lectern blew toward the viewers.