Charles Atlas, MC9, 2012, Collection Walker Art Center; T. B. Walker Acquisition Fund, 2015, © Charles Atlas, photo by Gene Pittman, courtesy Walker Art Center, Minneapolis
Merce Cunningham, Clouds and Screens – LACMA The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) presents ‘Merce Cunningham, Clouds and Screens’, an exploration of choreographer Merce Cunningham’s dynamic artistic collaborations. October 28, 2018 – March 31, 2019.]]>
Source: Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Cunningham (1919–2009) revolutionized dance through his partnerships with leading artists who created costumes, films, music, and décor and whose independent creative instincts he held in the highest regard. Known for embracing risk and chance, Cunningham believed in the radical notion that movement, sound, and visual art could exist independently of each other, coming together only during the “common time” of a performance. The exhibition features immersive installations by Charles Atlas and Andy Warhol, two artists associated with the choreographer’s company, along with two video projections of early dances by Cunningham.
Andy Warhol’s whimsical “Silver Clouds”, created with scientist and engineer Billy Kluver, greets visitors to the exhibition upon entrance to the BCAM lobby. Anchoring the exhibition, Charles Atlas’s posthumous homage to Cunningham, MC9 (short for “Merce Cunningham to the ninth power”), addresses the decades-long investigation developed by the artists on the relationship of live performance and video documentation.
Two videos of early Cunningham dances are shown in an adjacent gallery: “Changeling” (1957, filmed 1958), a solo piece for which Robert Rauschenberg designed the set, costume, and lighting; and “Night Wandering” (1958, filmed 1964)—a duet with star dancer Carolyn Brown—for which Rauschenberg redesigned costumes and lighting. Los Angeles-based dancer and choreographer Jennie MaryTai Liu (b. 1982) will present a commissioned project responding to this exhibition in February 2019.
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