John Cage
(Los Angeles, 1912-1992)
Composer John Cage
Bibliography: Silence (Middletown,
Conn.: Wesleyan University Press, 1961). A Year from
Monday (Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University
Press, 1967). M: Writings '67-'72 (Middletown,
Conn.: Wesleyan University Press, 1973). Empty Words,
Writings '73-'79 (Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan
University Press, 1979). X: Writings '79-'82 (Middletown,
Conn.: Wesleyan University Press, 1983). I-VI/John
Cage (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press,
1990), + 2 sound cassettes.
Musicage: Cage Muses on Words,
Art, Music (Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New
England, 1985).
About: Richard Kostelanetz, John
Cage (ex)plain(ed) (New York: Schirmer Books, 1996).
Susan Sontag, Cage-Cunningham-Johns: Dancers on a
Plane (New York: Knopf, 1990). Conceptual Art
"Konzeption Conception," the first
major event related to Conceptual Art, was held in
Leverjusen, Germany, in 1969. The expression
"concept art" had already been used in 1961 by
Henry Flynt in a Fluxus publication, but it was to take
on a different meaning when it was used by Joseph Kosuth
and the Art & Language group in England. For them,
the term referred to an investigation of the concept
"art," where the art object itself was replaced
by the analysis of it. The two basic ideas behind
Conceptual Art were that artistic production should serve
artistic knowledge and that the work of art is not an end
in itself.Art & Language (Terry Atkinson, David
Bainbridge, Michael Baldwin, Harold Hurrell, Ian Burn,
Mel Ramsden, Philip Pilkington, David Rushton), which
created the magazine Art-Language in 1969,
maintained that language is not employed as art but
serves for the analysis of art. This argument reflected a
distinctively Anglo-Saxon approach based on analytical
philosophy and as such connected the members of the group
to certain Minimalists. Conceptual Art views the artistic
"fact" through the discourse surrounding it.
The first conceptual works were presented as having no
function other than the definition of themselves. Joseph
Kosuth's One and Three Chairs, for example,
consists of a folding chair, a photograph of a chair, and
a photographic enlargement of a dictionary definition of
a chair. The first exhibition specifically devoted to
Conceptual Art took place in 1970 at the New York
Cultural Center under the title "Conceptual Art and
Conceptual Aspects." Kosuth's seminal article
"Art after Philosophy," published in 1969 in Studio
International, was reprinted in the catalogue.
Bibliography: Gregory Battcock (ed.), Idea
Art, A Critical Anthology (New York: E. P. Dutton,
1973). Lucy C. Lippard, Six Years: The
Dematerialization of the Art Object from 1966 to 1972
(New York: Praeger, 1973). Robert C. Morgan, Conceptual
Art: An American Perspective (Jefferson, N. C.:
McFarland, 1994).
Merce
Cunningham (Centralia, Washington,
1919- ).
Dancer and choreographer Merce Cunningham was a soloist
with the Martha Graham Dance Company from 1939 to 1945,
but his collaboration with composer John Cage from 1942
until Cage's death in 1992 was to be determinant for his
choreography. Cage's use of chance, as well as the I
Ching (Book of Changes) and Zen philosophy, transformed
Cunningham's perception of dance. In 1948, the two men
began applying their ideas at Black Mountain College, and
in this multidisciplinary environment, Cunningham was to
encounter future collaborators such as artists Willem and
Elaine De Kooning (The Ruse of Medusa, 1948) and
Robert Rauschenberg (Minutie, 1954) and composer
David Tudor. In 1952, Cunningham participated with Cage,
Tudor, Rauschenberg, Mary Caroline Richard, and Charles
Olson in an untitled event now considered the first
happening. Cunningham revolutionized the concept of
ballet by rejecting the traditional narrative convention
in favor of pure movement. Taking on the dance/music
relationship, he separated the two components to give
each one its complete autonomy. Although Cage and
Cunningham determined the length of a piece together,
they did not became aware of each other's respective
works until the night before the performance. The dancers
circulated without any rhythmic support other than an
internal perception of time. Cunningham's friendships
with avant-garde painters led him to renew the stage
space by abandoning the ancient hierarchy that made the
center the focus of the action. Drawing on Einstein's
theory of relativity, he made each point in space
perfectly equal and thus capable of presenting multiple
events simultaneously. As of 1964, he accentuated the
reliance on chance that prevailed in his choreographies
by creating events that were conceived at the last
minute, from different pieces, in order to adapt to
unconventional sites (Event Museum, Vienna,
1964). In 1967, painter Frank Stella designed the sets
for Scramble. The following year, Cunningham
presented Rain Forest on a stage invaded by Andy
Warhol's helium-inflated silver pillows and also
choreographed Walkaround Time, in which Marcel
Duchamp had Jasper Johns adapt the Large Glass
to fill the stage space of the ballet. Johns was to
succeed Rauschenberg as the dance company's artistic
director, but Cunningham also collaborated with
Minimalist artist Robert Morris for Canfield
(1969) and Inlets (1977), and Bruce Nauman
designed the sets for Tread in 1970. Mark
Lancaster became the company's artistic advisor in 1980,
followed by William Anastasi and Dove Bradshaw in 1984.
Among the other major composers collaborating with
Cunningham were Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry,
PierreBoulez, La Monte Young, and Jon Gibson. In 1974,
with the help of Charles Atlas, he began using video as a
means of further experimentation; he played with the
audience's frontal viewpoint and filmed from multiple
camera angles. He also used the electronic properties of
video to create works such as Blue Studio (1975)
and Torse (1977). In 1992, he used the computer
to elaborate Enter, a piece presented at the
Paris Opera.
Bibliography: Notes on Choreography,
ed. Frances Starr (New York: Something Else Press, 1969).
The Dancer and the Dance. Merce Cunningham in
conversation with Jacqueline Lesschaeve (New York:
M. Boyars, 1985).
About: Raphaƫl de Gubernatis, Cunningham
(Arles: B. Coutaz, 1990). James Klosty (ed.), Merce
Cunningham (New York: Saturday Review Press, 1975).
Richard Kostelanetz (ed.), Merce Cunningham, Dancing
in Space and Time (Chicago: Chicago Review Press,
1992). Susan Sontag, Cage-Cunningham-Johns: Dancers
on a Plane (New York: Knopf, 1990).
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