Cunningham is unanimously considered a reference name for the history of twentieth-century choreography, for the new perspectives and original points of view that he has given to dance and performance.
But Cunningham's artistic experience, in reality, is not only this; it is not only creation and freedom but also a place of encounter, collaboration, dialogue between distinct expressive forms; it is a continuous laboratory in which so many artistic and creative experiences have intersected that it seems almost incredible today.
Merce Cunningham has always been interested in working with artists, since the first and initial collaborations with Cage, to which were added names, now very important, of painting, sculpture, design, music and even digital art. Scrolling through the history of Cunningham and the Merce Cunningham Dance Company means opening a window on the history of artistic production that, in the twentieth century, made New York a point of reference, and at the same time, transformed the Merce Cunningham Dance Company into a sort of living museum of twentieth-century art.
In the exhibition Cunningham. Between Signs and Sounds there is an extremely significant, albeit partial, series of these works of art: paintings, lithographs, drawings, posters, photographs, musical scores.
One of the most interesting works, exhibited for the first time in a museum space, is the large canvas by Robert Rauschenberg, Immerse painted in 1994 as a backdrop for the Events.
The collaboration between Rauschenberg and Cunningham dates back to 1954 when, on the occasion of the ballet Minutiae, a partnership was established that would last for ten years, until 1964. With that ballet, Rauschenberg became Cunningham's official set designer and began that special relationship between Cunningham and set designers that would continue for decades: "[...] I didn't tell him what to do. I simply said that it could be something that went into the dance space, something through which, around which and with which, if he wanted, we could move".
Among the other works exhibited in Rovereto are some drawings by Rauschenberg in pencil and pastel on paper, dating back to 1957 with costumes and scenography entitled Labyrinthian Dances and a Portrait of Merce from 1984 (Collage, stencil, silk print and hand drawing).
Rauschenberg's scenography was not always preceded by drawings or sketches; sometimes, instead, it was the result of immediate creation, such as those for Story (1963) with the use of materials found in and around the theater where the Merce Cunningham Dance Company performed.
Other works present in the exhibition are those by Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol, Frank Stella. All these artists came into contact with Cunningham after 1967 when, at the end of the experience with Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns became the official scenographer of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company with the responsibility of choosing an artist for each show.
In the exhibition itinerary, you can find the portrait made by Andy Warhol and entitled Merce, the lithograph Ocean (1996) by Jasper Johns and also the 1968 Latin American Tour poster by Frank Stella.
The artists' collaborations were not limited to scenography, as can be seen from the few works presented so far, but also to the production of portraits or posters. In particular, the presence of artists' posters is very interesting. The names that recur are those of Rauschenberg and
Johns themselves, the aforementioned Frank Stella, as well as Gary Lichtenstein with Cage/Cunningham (film poster), Morris Graves (Waning Moon 2), Nam June Paik (Merce by Merce by Paik) and a poster by Mark Lancaster, Merce and the Monitors.
The Englishman Mark Lancaster, assistant to Jasper Johns, became the official set designer of the Company in 1980 and among his works there are some drawings dating back to that period: Trails from 1982 and Video Triangle.
In Cunningham's training, the meeting that represents the most important moment is certainly the one with Cage. Their collaboration, dating back to the early 1940s, continued over time with the Untitled Event from 1952, the Theater Piece from 1954 until the collaboration of 1973 in which Cunningham, Cage and the artist Jasper Johns created, for the Paris Opera, the show Un jour ou deux. A dutiful tribute to the importance of Cage's figure can be found in the exhibition of some of his musical scores and a lithograph 30 Drawings by Thoreau.
Another musical score on display is that of David Tudor, Toneburst (Sounddance) from 1975.
The programming of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company's performances in Trento and Rovereto, which sees the staging of one show per decade, also illustrates the wealth of artistic collaborations that, over the years, have accompanied Cunningham's work. In particular, in addition to the works cited above, we must remember the enlargement of a painting by Roy Lichtenstein, used as a backdrop for the ballet Pond Way of 1998 as well as the scenography of the young Brazilian sculptor Ernesto Neto for Views on Stage of 2004.
Collaboration with young artists seems to be a constant in recent years in Cunningham's choices and so we come across names like Leonardo Crew, Charles Long, Terry Winters of whom we have the work Untitled, in relation to the scenography for Loose Time and Marsha Skinner, present with the drawings Beach Birds of 1991 and Ocean of 1994.
To the exhibition of the works of the artists who have collaborated with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company are added drawings by Cunningham himself who says: "about twenty years ago [...] on tour in Los Angeles and waiting for the bus that was supposed to take us to California I started drawing on pieces of paper with a pen. Since then every free moment for me turns into a drawing".
These are thirteen drawings representing flowers, plants, animals, birds, giraffes, a mountain goat and a dinosaur and a drawing entitled Sea Life.
The exhibition ends symbolically with the lithographs that seven artists made in 1974 as evidence of their collaborations with Merce Cunningham and his Company.
Among these is the aforementioned lithograph by Cage, joined by those by Jasper Johns, M.D., Bruce Nauman, Caned Dance, Robert Rauschenberg, Cunningham Relief, Frank Stella, Fuerg: a worthy conclusion to a partial but highly exemplary exhibition of an artistic laboratory, still alive and evolving, in which great artists of the twentieth century have confronted each other.
