Invention: Merce Cunningham & Collaborators

From June 19, 2007 through October 13, 2007
Donald and Mary Oenslager Gallery
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, 40 Lincoln Center Plaza, New York, NY 10023-7498 (directions)

Merce Cunningham in his Antic Meet, 1958. Photograph by Richard Rutledge. Courtesy Archives of the Cunningham Dance Foundation.

A collaborative project of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, the Cunningham Dance Foundation, and the John Cage Trust.

The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts is the repository of the John Cage Music Manuscript Collection and the Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation Collection. Additional artifacts will be pulled from the Merce Cunningham Archives, the John Cage Trust, and the Library’s Jerome Robbins Dance Division, Music Division, and Rodgers & Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound.

The exhibit will illustrate the four key discoveries that Cunningham pursued through decades of creativity, often in collaboration with John Cage: the separation of music and dance; the use of chance operations and indeterminacy in composition and choreography; the possibilities of film and video; and experimentation with computer technology.

Visitors can re-trace the artists’ investigations through such primary sources as Cage’s manuscript scores, and more unusual equipment, such as charts, instructions, and tools of chance operations. Cunningham’s choreographic documents range from drawings, charts, and diverse materials generated by the computer software DanceForms®. Cunningham's collaborative efforts for the stage feature sets, costumes, media, sound scores, and other elements by many of the most innovative artists of his time. Invention: Cunningham & Collaborators features photographs, multi-media materials, and interactives that document performances from the 1940s to the present. Performances: Tuesday, August 7, September 4, and October 2 at noon: the Cunningham Repertory Group will perform an Event created for the Plaza lobby. Tuesday, September 11, at 4: Nurit Tilles will play excerpts from John Cage's Sonatas and Interludes on the prepared piano. Tuesday, October 2, at 4: Nurit Tilles will play the complete Sonatas and Interludes