Widely considered the most influential dance artist of the 20th century, the US dancer and choreographer Merce Cunningham (1919-2009) possessed an inexhaustible drive for experimentation that forever reshaped his medium, and contemporary art itself. By testing the limits of dance through technological innovation, collaborations across mediums and even employing the concept of randomness to power his works, Cunningham both expanded and eroded his art form’s boundaries. This video from the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota explores six aspects to Cunningham’s 70-year career, from dance maker, collaborator and chance taker, to innovator, film producer and teacher, to put his influence and legacy in context.
Video by Walker Art Center
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Art
When East met West in the images of an overlooked, original photographer
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Earth science and climate
Images carved into film form a haunting elegy for a disappearing slice of Earth
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Nature and landscape
California’s landscapes provide endless inspiration for a woodcut printmaker
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Stories and literature
Two variants of a Hindu myth come alive in an animated ode to Indian storytelling
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Art
Background music was the radical invention of a trailblazing composer
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Gender
A filmmaker responds to Lars von Trier’s call for a new muse with a unique application
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Design and fashion
A ceramicist puts her own bawdy spin on the folk language of pottery
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Radical doodles – how ‘exquisite corpse’ games embodied the Surrealist movement
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Beauty and aesthetics
In art, the sublime is a feedback loop, evolving with whatever’s next to threaten us
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