Merce Cunningham

Merce Cunningham is widely recognized as one of the greatest American choreographers and dancers. As the founder of The Merce Cunningham Dance Company in 1953, Cunningham collaborated with important artists and composers, including John Cage, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, and Andy Warhol.

Cunningham began drawing in the 1970's while the Dance Company was on tour in Los Angeles. He recalls that the tour bus was very late picking them up the morning after the performance, so he had time to look around. He saw an intriguing tree outside the window, and he wondered whether he would be able to draw it. He found pen and paper and began to sketch.

Cunningham writes of that moment: “The future was clear. In any free moment, look about and draw”.

In the preface to the 2002 book “Merce Cunningham - Other Animals, Drawings and Journals”, published by Aperture, Cunningham states:

“One of the pleasures of drawing for me is the rapidity with which one ceases to have concerns about oneself. The intensity of trying to capture the line and the sense of something in nature becomes absorbing enough to hold all one’s attention”.

Merce Cunningham’s drawings are represented in the permanent collections of several museums, including The Walker Art Center, Minneapolis.

Submitted by Sigrid Freundorfer Fine Art