Merce Cunningham: Common Time
Featured Images
About the Exhibition
Merce Cunningham: Common Time is a major retrospective exhibition organized by the Walker Art Center that is appearing simultaneously at the Walker and the MCA. Merce Cunningham (American, 1919–2009) was a seminal figure in modern dance, revolutionizing performance through his choreography and world-renowned dance company and through partnerships with leading artists, who created costumes, lighting, and set designs for his company's performances. The exhibition showcases Cunningham's multidisciplinary projects, exploring, as Cunningham described, the “underlying principle that music and dance and art could be separate entities independent and interdependent, sharing a common time.”
Performance backdrops, documentary video and video installations, sets, costumes, artworks, photographs, and ephemera immerse viewers in Cunningham's creative activities. The exhibition highlights partnerships with artists including lifelong collaborator John Cage as well as Black Mountain colleagues Jasper Johns and, Robert Rauschenberg and other major figures, including Frank Stella, Robert Morris, and Bruce Nauman, who were greatly influenced in the development of their visual styles by Cunningham's ideas. Special features include a presentation of Andy Warhol's Rainforest, which includes his famous helium-filled silver balloons, and Charles Atlas's MC9, which will fill one of the MCA barrel vault galleries with 35 years of clips from Cunningham pieces in a dazzling audio-visual realization. It also features a series of new commissions by former members of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company and the Ballet de Lorraine.
The exhibition is organized by the Walker Art Center's Artistic Director Fionn Meade and Director and Senior Curator of Performing Arts Philip Bither, with Joan Rothfuss and Mary Coyne. It is overseen at the MCA by Curator Lynne Warren.
The exhibition is presented in the Griffin Galleries of Contemporary Art on the museum’s fourth floor.
Installation Images
Installation view, Merce Cunningham: Common Time, MCA Chicago, Feb 11–Apr 30, 2017
Photo: Nathan Keay, © MCA ChicagoInstallation view, Merce Cunningham: Common Time, MCA Chicago, Feb 11–Apr 30, 2017
Photo: Nathan Keay, © MCA ChicagoInstallation view, Merce Cunningham: Common Time, MCA Chicago, Feb 11–Apr 30, 2017. Work shown: Frank Stella, Décor for Scramble, 1967. Aluminum, colored canvas covers, wood, and steel; 198 x 278 x 40 in. Walker Art Center, Merce Cunningham Dance Company Collection, Gift of Jay F. Ecklund, the Barnett and Annalee Newman Foundation, Agnes Gund, Russell Cowles and Josine Peters, the Hayes Fund of HRK Foundation, Dorothy Lichtenstein, MAHADH Fund of HRK Foundation, Goodale Family Foundation, Marion Stroud Swingle, David Teiger, Kathleen Fluegel, Barbara G. Pine, and the T. B. Walker Acquisition Fund, 2011
Photo: Nathan Keay, © MCA ChicagoInstallation view, Merce Cunningham: Common Time, MCA Chicago, Feb 11–Apr 30, 2017. Work shown: Charles Atlas, MC9__, 2012. 9-channel synchronized video installation. Courtesy Luhring Augustine, New York, and Charles Atlas
Photo: Nathan Keay, © MCA ChicagoInstallation view, Merce Cunningham: Common Time, MCA Chicago, Feb 11–Apr 30, 2017. Work shown: Charles Atlas, MC9__, 2012. 9-channel synchronized video installation. Courtesy Luhring Augustine, New York, and Charles Atlas
Photo: Nathan Keay, © MCA ChicagoInstallation view, Merce Cunningham: Common Time, MCA Chicago, Feb 11–Apr 30, 2017
Photo: Nathan Keay, © MCA ChicagoInstallation view, Merce Cunningham: Common Time, MCA Chicago, Feb 11–Apr 30, 2017. Work shown: Nam June Paik, 66-76-89, 1990. Television cabinet, 32 video monitors, and steel; 148 x 64 x 48 in. Collection Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, T. B. Walker Acquisition Fund, 1990
Photo: Nathan Keay, © MCA ChicagoInstallation view, Merce Cunningham: Common Time, MCA Chicago, Feb 11–Apr 30, 2017. Work shown: Ernesto Neto, otheranimal, décor for Views on Stage, c. 2005. Nylon, polypropylene pellets, rice, glass beads, and plastic pellets; 18 x 20 x 20 ft. Collection Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, gift of the artist and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York, 2012
Photo: Nathan Keay, © MCA ChicagoInstallation view, Merce Cunningham: Common Time, MCA Chicago, Feb 11–Apr 30, 2017
Photo: Nathan Keay, © MCA ChicagoInstallation view, Merce Cunningham: Common Time, MCA Chicago, Feb 11–Apr 30, 2017. Work shown: Rei Kawakubo, costumes for Scenario, 1997. Padded skirts, shirts, tank tops, pants, shorts, dresses, and hot pants. Walker Art Center, Merce Cunningham Dance Company Collection, gift of Jay F. Ecklund, the Barnett and Annalee Newman Foundation, Agnes Gund, Russell Cowles and Josine Peters, the Hayes Fund of HRK Foundation, Dorothy Lichtenstein, MAHADH Fund of HRK Foundation, Goodale Family Foundation, Marion Stroud Swingle, David Teiger, Kathleen Fluegel, Barbara G. Pine, and the T. B. Walker Acquisition Fund, 2011
Photo: Nathan Keay, © MCA ChicagoFeatured Artists
The artists featured in Merce Cunningham: Common Time include:
- Hazel Larsen Archer
- Bob Arnold
- Daniel Arsham
- Charles Atlas
- Chad Batka
- David Behrman
- George Brecht
- Trisha Brown
- John Cage
- Philip Corner
- Merce Cunningham
- Morton Feldman
- David Freund
- Philippe Halsman
- Al Hansen
- Deborah Hay
- Toshi Ichiyanagi
- Jasper Johns
- Clemens Kalischer
- Allan Kaprow
- Stig T. Karlsson
- Rei Kawakubo
- Takehisa Kosugi
- Shigeko Kubota
- George Maciunas
- Fred McDarrah
- Peter Moore
- Barbara Morgan
- Robert Morris
- Gordon Mumma
- Bruce Nauman
- Ernesto Neto
- Isamu Noguchi
- Pauline Oliveros
- Yoko Ono
- Mary Outten
- Nam June Paik
- D. A. Pennebaker
- Yvonne Rainer
- Robert Rauschenberg
- M. C. Richards
- Carolee Schneemann
- Frank Stella
- Elaine Summers
- David Tudor
- Charlotte Trowbridge
- Andy Warhol
- Christian Wolff
Funding
Merce Cunningham: Common Time is organized by the Walker Art Center with major support provided by the Barnett and Annalee Newman Foundation and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Generous support is also provided by Agnes Gund and the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation.
Lead support for Merce Cunningham: Common Time is provided by the Harris Family Foundation in memory of Bette and Neison Harris: Caryn and King Harris, Katherine Harris, Toni and Ron Paul, Pam and Joe Szokol, Linda and Bill Friend, and Stephanie and John Harris; Cari and Michael Sacks; and Helen and Sam Zell.
Major support is provided by the Walter and Karla Goldschmidt Foundation, Abby McCormick O’Neil and D. Carroll Joynes, anonymous, and the Nancy Lauter McDougal and Alfred L. McDougal Exhibition Fund.
Additional generous support is provided by The Irving Harris Foundation, Joyce E. Chelberg, NIB Foundation, Robert Lehman Foundation, Jennifer and Alec Litowitz, and Carol Prins and John Hart/The Jessica Fund.
Special thanks to exhibition chairs, Sara Albrecht and Anne L. Kaplan.
The MCA is proud to partner with the Harris Theatre, Hubbard Street Dance, and the Joffrey Ballet.