Anna Halprin's Dance-Events, Deweyan Aesthetics, And
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AUTONOMY AS A TEMPORARY COLLECTIVE EXPERIENCE: ANNA HALPRIN’S DANCE-EVENTS, DEWEYAN AESTHETICS, AND THE EMERGENCE OF DIALOGICAL ART IN THE SIXTIES by Tusa Shea BA, University of Victoria, 2002 MA, University of Victoria, 2005 A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of History in Art Tusa Shea, 2012 University of Victoria All rights reserved. This thesis may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy or other means, without the permission of the author. ii Supervisory Committee AUTONOMY AS A TEMPORARY COLLECTIVE EXPERIENCE: ANNA HALPRIN’S DANCE-EVENTS, DEWEYAN AESTHETICS, AND THE EMERGENCE OF DIALOGICAL ART IN THE SIXTIES by Tusa Shea BA, University of Victoria, 2002 MA, University of Victoria, 2005 Supervisory Committee Allan Antliff, Department of History in Art Supervisor Christopher Thomas, Department of History in Art Departmental Member Lianne McLarty, Department of History in Art Departmental Member Daniel Laskarin, Department of Visual Arts Outside Member iii Abstract Focusing on the event-based work of San Francisco dancer and choreographer, Anna Halprin, this dissertation argues that relational art and aesthetics is an integral feature of modernism that can be traced to the emergence of dialogue in art practices of the 1950s and 60s. I argue that John Dewey’s pragmatist aesthetics provided Anna Halprin, and other artists in her circle, with a coexistent experiential site for art’s conception and production. This alternative aesthetic model was based on an embodied, holistic approach to aesthetic experience that was fundamentally different from the Kantian-based formalism articulated by Clement Greenberg. Uncovering this alternative aesthetic model matters, not only because it is a neglected tradition with contemporary theoretical resonance, but because it allows us to see that event-based art produced during the 1960s was not merely deconstructive; it also had a constructive social purpose, namely the modeling of temporary, non-totalizing communal experiences. I analyze this contingent collectivism through an anarchist lens, in order to demonstrate that anarchic principles and models of agency were enacted and kept operational in art communities, networks, and events and, furthermore, were supported by holistic philosophies grounded in concrete experience. Supervisory Committee Allan Antliff, Department of History in Art Supervisor Christopher Thomas, Department of History in Art Departmental Member Lianne McLarty, Department of History in Art Departmental Member Daniel Laskarin, Department of Visual Arts Outside Member iv Table of Contents Supervisory Committee ...................................................................................................... ii Abstract.............................................................................................................................. iii Table of Contents............................................................................................................... iv List of Figures..................................................................................................................... v Acknowledgments ............................................................................................................. vi Dedication......................................................................................................................... vii Introduction....................................................................................................................... 1 Deweyan Aesthetics........................................................................................................ 9 The Problem of the Collective ...................................................................................... 18 Chapter One Anna Halprin's Interdisciplinary Dance Experience .................................................. 35 The Development of Modern Dance and the Liberated Body...................................... 39 Dance as Experience: A Holistic Approach ................................................................. 46 Chapter Two Postwar Individualism: Art Critical Frameworks and the Exclusion of Dialogue... 70 Postwar Anti-Collectivism: Autonomous Art vs. Mass Culture................................... 73 Autonomous Art: A Brief Overview ............................................................................ 83 Greenberg, Rosenberg, and the Hegemony of Silence ................................................. 91 Chapter Three Embodiment and Dialogue in the Communal Art Experience................................. 106 The Non-totalizing Collective and Field Theory........................................................ 114 Field Theory in Practice: the Shared Art Experience at Black Mountain College ..... 123 Chapter Four The Gesturing Body: Reconfiguring the Artist/Viewer Relationship...................... 138 Passive and Resistant Bodies...................................................................................... 142 The Lived Body and Audience Participation.............................................................. 150 Chapter Five Ten Myths: Mutual Creation and the Non-totalizing Collective.............................. 170 Ten Myths: an Experiment in Mutual Creation .......................................................... 173 Ten Myths: an Art Experience? .................................................................................. 188 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 205 Bibliography ................................................................................................................... 214 v List of Figures Figure 1. Anna Halprin and Welland Lathrop at their studio in San Francisco, 1949. Photo by Philip Fein. ........................................................................................................ 53 Figure 2. A. A. Leath, Anna Halprin, and Simone Forti on the dance deck, Kentfield, California, 1954. Photo by Warner Jepson. ...................................................................... 56 Figure 3. Experiments in Environment Workshop participants, 1966, Sea Ranch, California. Photo by Joe Ehreth........................................................................................ 67 Figure 4. Experiments in Environment Automobile Event, San Francisco, 1966. Photo by Paul Ryan.......................................................................................................................... 67 Figure 5. Experiments in Environment remnants of the driftwood village, Sea Ranch, California, 1966. Photo by Joe Ehreth.............................................................................. 68 Figure 6. 18 Happenings in 6 Parts, Allan Kaprow in centre with participants, 1959, New York City. Collection of the artist. ................................................................................. 154 Figure 7. Five-Legged Stool, 1962, Playhouse Theatre, San Francisco. Photo by Warner Jepson.............................................................................................................................. 161 Figure 8. Ten Myths advertisement, 1967, San Francisco. Collection of the artist. ....... 172 Figure 9. San Francisco Dancers' Workshop and participants performing "Atonement" from Ten Myths, 1967, San Francisco. Photo by Casey Sonnabend. ............................. 179 Figure 10. Participants performing "Trails" from Ten Myths, 1967, San Francisco. Photo by Casey Sonnabend....................................................................................................... 182 Figure 11. San Francisco Dancers' Workshop Score for "Totem Chairs," from Ten Myths, 1967. ............................................................................................................................... 183 Figure 12. San Francisco Dancers' Workshop and participants performing "Maze" from Ten Myths, 1967. Photo by Casey Sonnabend................................................................ 184 Figure 13. San Francisco Dancers' Workshop Score for "Dreams" from Ten Myths, 1968. ........................................................................................................................................ 185 Figure 14. San Francisco Dancers' Workshop and participants performing "Carry" from Ten Myths, 1968, San Francisco. Photo by Casey Sonnabend. ...................................... 186 vi Acknowledgments I offer my gratitude to all of those who supported me as I completed this project. Above all, without the guidance and encouragement of my supervisor, Dr. Allan Antliff, this project would not have been possible. He offered me the gift of clarity through his incisive questioning and commentary. During a difficult period when I changed topics, he gave me both the scholarly support and the freedom I needed to move forward. For that, I am especially thankful. I am also grateful to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for three years of much appreciated funding. Their generosity made this undertaking achievable. I am pleased to express my thanks to my committee members, Dr. Chris Thomas, Dr. Lianne McLarty, and Professor Daniel Laskarin, who provided valuable feedback. I also thank fellow doctoral students Catherine Nutting, Genevieve Gamache, Nancy Cuthbert, and Jamie Kemp for their lively discussion and moral support