WEST OF CENTER ART AND THE COUNTERCULTURE EXPERIMENT IN AMERICA, 1965-1977 This exhibition portrays the art and activities of a small segment of extraordinary individuals in the American West, who illustrate the artistic relevance of the greater counterculture movement in the 1960s and 1970s. The work included here represents a few of the diverse ways that the counterculture sought to break away from tradition, attempting to develop new ways to envision the world, create habitats, express sexuality, and connect with others. With a concerted effort to blend art and life, the artistic projects exhibited here manifest much more than the psychedelic style which defines the counterculture in the popular imagination. Rather, the counterculturalists in this exhibition are the major promoters of an expanded definition of art in our society, popularizing an informal approach to artistic practice that moves beyond the precious object to include acts of invention in all areas of life. SOCIAL ENCOUNTERS THE DANCE OF ANNA HALPRIN One of the most influential choreographers of experimental dance of the American counterculture, Anna Halprin developed a practice that aimed at personal and social change as much as innovation in the field of dance. She founded the San Francisco Dancers’ Workshop in 1955 and advanced her groundbreaking work in the mid-1960s and 1970s with multi-sensory workshops that transcended the traditional rules of dance and encouraged participants to develop through movement a heightened awareness of themselves, each other, and their environment. From her famous outdoor dance studio at her home in Marin County, where she continues to work today, she teaches both trained and untrained dancers with a process aimed at both art and life. Her students have included many of the leading avant-garde dancers in New York and elsewhere. Charlene Koonef. Citydance, 1976. Images (left to right): Paul Ryan. Experiments in Environment, 1968; Lawrence Halprin. Merce Cunningham on the dance deck, Kentfield, California, 1957. EXPANDED CINEMA I THE SINGLE WING TURQUOISE BIRD “During the last years of the 1960s and the first of the 1970s—the heyday of the psychedelic era—the premier light show in Los Angeles, and one of the best in the world, was the Single Wing Turquoise Bird,” writes cinema historian David E. James. Combining slides, films, and strobes with dishes of colored oil and water and other devices for projecting pictures and abstract designs, the group composed their shows in real time, improvising like a jazz ensemble. Though they performed with acts like the Grateful Dead, Pink Floyd, and Janis Joplin, the Single Wing most often created their own shows with their own following. Their work was also seen in the context of contemporary art, with performances at museums and other venues for art audiences. At once art, avant-garde cinema, and visual music, the Single Wing embodies the counterculture impulse to invent new, hybrid forms. The group performed regularly into the mid-1970s but, because of the ephemeral nature of their compositions, very little documentation exists of this early work. They created a new work, Invisible Writing, for this exhibition. Top image: Single Wing Turquoise Bird. Still from Invisible Writing, 2011. Bottom image: Andy Romanoff. Birds in Flight, 2011. EXPANDED CINEMA II THE ULTIMATE PAINTING The original members of the Drop City commune established near Trinidad, Colorado, collaboratively produced The Ultimate Painting in an improvisational manner. Conceived in 1966, just as light shows were emerging as a popular art form, The Ultimate Painting was made to spin during multi-media shows in Drop City’s Theater Dome. Organized according to a five-pointed geodesic framework, the geometric structure that inspired the Drop City cosmology, the painting reveals different patterns under various frequencies of a strobe light. Clark Richert. The Ultimate Painting (1966), 2011. Created by Clark Richert, Richard Kallweit, Gene Bernofsky, JoAnn Recreation of a collaborative work between Clark Bernofsky, and Charles DiJulio, The Ultimate Painting was last displayed Richert, Richard Kallweit, JoAnn Bernofsky, Gene Bernofsky and Charles DiJulio. in winter 1968/69 as part of an Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.) exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, organized by engineer Billy Klüver and artist Robert Rauschenberg. Having found its place both within the New York art world and the counterculture imagination, the painting was lost after its exhibition in Brooklyn and never recovered. For West of Center, artist Clark Richert recreated the lost painting based on a high-resolution photograph. DOME ARCHITECTURE LIFE THEATER DROP CITY AND BEYOND THE COCKETTES & THE ANGELS OF LIGHT Geodesic-based dome architecture was a persistent element of the Part commune, part theater troupe, the Cockettes performed lavish counterculture landscape in the West. Over 2,000 rural communes stage acts regularly in the late 1960s and early 1970s at San Francisco’s were formed in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s, and the Palace Theatre to a large, cult following. Maintaining little distinction iconic Drop City, near Trinidad, Colorado, was the first of them to between art and life, gay and straight, or male and female, they wore use domes. Originally inspired by the visionary ideas of Buckminster their exuberant, handmade outfits in both everyday life and on stage. Fuller and Steve Baer, dome structures became a big part of the According to poet Allen Ginsberg, “The Cockettes brought out into counterculture mythos. With lattice forms that appeared to align with the street what was in the closet, in terms of theatrical dress and natural geometries, domes provided a more organic alternative to imaginative theater.” Exploring sexual expression and gender identity, the mechanistic structures of modern cities and the artificiality of the the Cockettes invented new forms of glamour that became influential 90-degree angle. Triggered in part by international media coverage of for the following decades. Drop City, dome architecture proliferated in the period as an efficient, accessible, and liberating building format. In 1971, an ideological rift over the question of whether or not performances should be free of charge created the splinter troupe, the Angels of Light Free Theatre. The Angels of Light carried on the outrageous sartorial style and the blurring of gender and sexual boundaries into the late 1970s with numerous hit shows from Peking on Acid (1972) to Paris Sights Under the Bourgeois Sea (1975). Gene Bernofsky. Untitled Photograph of Drop City Roger Arvid Anderson. Johnny (1972), 2011. Dome Under Construction (c. 1966), 2011. Top images: Jack Fulton. Red Rockers’ Environment (1973), 2011. Images (left to right): Roger Arvid Anderson. Fayette (1972), 2011; Clay Geerdes. The Cockettes Go Shopping (1972), 2011. Bottom images (left to right): Jack Fulton. Couple with Transparent Dome, Pacific Highway (1973), 2011; Jack Fulton. Large Dome on Flats, Pacific High School (1973), 2011; Jack Fulton. Zomeworks Bus (1973), 2011. DOME ARCHITECTURE LIFE THEATER DROP CITY AND BEYOND THE COCKETTES & THE ANGELS OF LIGHT Geodesic-based dome architecture was a persistent element of the Part commune, part theater troupe, the Cockettes performed lavish counterculture landscape in the West. Over 2,000 rural communes stage acts regularly in the late 1960s and early 1970s at San Francisco’s were formed in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s, and the Palace Theatre to a large, cult following. Maintaining little distinction iconic Drop City, near Trinidad, Colorado, was the first of them to between art and life, gay and straight, or male and female, they wore use domes. Originally inspired by the visionary ideas of Buckminster their exuberant, handmade outfits in both everyday life and on stage. Fuller and Steve Baer, dome structures became a big part of the According to poet Allen Ginsberg, “The Cockettes brought out into counterculture mythos. With lattice forms that appeared to align with the street what was in the closet, in terms of theatrical dress and natural geometries, domes provided a more organic alternative to imaginative theater.” Exploring sexual expression and gender identity, the mechanistic structures of modern cities and the artificiality of the the Cockettes invented new forms of glamour that became influential 90-degree angle. Triggered in part by international media coverage of for the following decades. Drop City, dome architecture proliferated in the period as an efficient, accessible, and liberating building format. In 1971, an ideological rift over the question of whether or not performances should be free of charge created the splinter troupe, the Angels of Light Free Theatre. The Angels of Light carried on the outrageous sartorial style and the blurring of gender and sexual boundaries into the late 1970s with numerous hit shows from Peking on Acid (1972) to Paris Sights Under the Bourgeois Sea (1975). Gene Bernofsky. Untitled Photograph of Drop City Roger Arvid Anderson. Johnny (1972), 2011. Dome Under Construction (c. 1966), 2011. Top images: Jack Fulton. Red Rockers’ Environment (1973), 2011. Images (left to right): Roger Arvid Anderson. Fayette (1972), 2011; Clay Geerdes. The Cockettes Go Shopping (1972), 2011. Bottom images (left to right): Jack Fulton. Couple with Transparent Dome, Pacific Highway (1973), 2011; Jack Fulton. Large Dome on Flats, Pacific High School (1973), 2011; Jack Fulton. Zomeworks Bus (1973), 2011. POLITICAL GRAPHICS THE POSTERS OF EMORY DOUGLAS In 1968, artist Emory Douglas was appointed Minister of Culture for the Black Panther Party, the African American revolutionary organization active between 1966 and 1982. Douglas’ job description included, among other creative projects, the design of posters that appeared on the streets and were published in the party’s official newspaper, The Black Panther. His graphic art utilized a variety of visual techniques like photomontage and the dynamic use of line to illustrate the political goals and philosophy of the Black Panther Party, encapsulated in its “10 Point Program” for social and political equity for black people and oppressed communities.