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29/9/2010

Seven Works by Trisha Brown

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

curated by Limor Tomer

Conceived as a two-part exhibition, Off the Wall brings together thirty performative actions by artists, in works made from 1946 to the present, and seven iconic performance works by Trisha Brown. The exhibition takes place at the Whitney Museum of American Art in the second-floor Mildred & Herbert Lee Galleries and the Kaufman Astoria Studios Film & Video Gallery, and extends beyond the Museum in the fall with Part 2’s presentation of Brown’s works.

Off the Wall: Part 2 — Seven Works by Trisha Brown, features the Trisha Brown Dance Company, on the occasion of the company’s fortieth anniversary, performing iconic works from the 1970s.
Performance videos and the performative sound installation Skymap will also be presented.

Performances will take place daily from September 30 through October 3, 2010, in the second floor galleries, in the Sculpture Court, and on an exterior wall of the Whitney on East 75th Street. Works to be performed will include the legendary work Walking on the Wall, originally performed in the second floor gallery at the Whitney in 1971, the spectacular Man Walking Down the Side of a Building, Falling Duet I, Leaning Duets I and II, Spanish Dance, Floor of the Forest, and the sound installation Skymap.

Part 2 is curated by Limor Tomer, the Whitney’s adjunct curator of performing arts. Tomer commented, “The Whitney played a huge role in the trajectory of Trisha Brown’s career. By presenting her so-called “Equipment Cycle” pieces in the second floor gallery in 1971, the Museum effectively removed the ‘rogue’ aspect from the work, which had been presented until then in SoHo streets, lofts, and on roof-tops, and allowed it to be viewed as an organic continuation of work that was being explored by visual artists, musicians, dancers, and performance artists of that era. Off The Wall is an opportunity to examine Brown's achievement within a larger context of actions, performative instructions, and installations."

Some of Brown's most important early works including Walking on the Wall (1970), Leaning Duets II (1971), Falling Duet I (1968), Falling Duet II (1971), and Skymap (1969), were performed at the Whitney on March 30 and 31, 1971, as part of an evening titled "Another Fearless Dance Concert." When asked recently about her relationship to the Whitney, Brown commented, "The Whitney? I was born there!"

Brown has created nearly one hundred dance works since 1961, including several operas, and is currently at work on a new operatic evening featuring the music of Jean-Philippe Rameau. Increasingly recognized as a visual artist, her drawings have been exhibited in group and solo exhibitions including Documenta 12 in Kasel, Germany, Sikkema Jenkins Gallery (2009), and most recently as part of the Year of Trisha, a celebration at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis of Brown’s entire body of work.

Trisha Brown was born and raised in Aberdeen, Washington. She graduated from Mills College in 1958, studied with Anna Halprin and taught at Reed College in Portland before moving to New York City in 1961. Instantly immersed in what was to become the post-modern phenomenon of Judson Dance Theater, her movement investigations found the extraordinary in the everyday and challenged existing perceptions of what constituted performance. In 1970, Brown formed her company and made the groundbreaking work, Man Walking Down the Side of a Building, one of many site-specific works created in, around, and hovering over the streets and buildings of Brown’s SoHo neighborhood. The first of her many collaborations with Robert Rauschenberg, Glacial Decoy, premiered in 1979, followed by Set and Reset in 1983, with original music by Laurie Anderson.

Brown was the first woman choreographer to receive the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship. Other honors include Brandeis University’s Creative Arts Medal in Dance, two John Simon Guggenheim Fellowships, a New York State Governor’s Arts Award, and the National Medal of Art. In 1994 she received the Samuel H. Scripps American Dance Festival Award and she has been named a Veuve Cliquot Grand Dame. Brown was named a Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the government of France in 1988, elevated to Officier in 2000, and to Commandeur in 2004. She served on the National Council on the Arts from 1994 to 1997, has received numerous honorary doctorates, and is an Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Trisha Brown Dance Company has presented the work of its legendary artistic director for more than thirty-eight years. Founded in 1970 when Trisha Brown branched out from the experimental Judson Dance Theater to work with her own group of dancers, TBDC is regularly seen in the major opera houses of New York, Paris, London, and throughout the world. The repertory has grown from solos and small group pieces to include major evening-length works and collaborations between Brown and renowned visual artists.

Part 1 is curated by Chrissie Iles, the Whitney's Anne & Joel Ehrenkranz Curator. Part 2 is curated by Limor Tomer, the Whitney's adjunct curator of performing arts.

About the Whitney
The Whitney Museum of American Art is the preeminent institution devoted to twentieth-century and contemporary art of the United States, with a special focus on works by living artists. The Whitney’s collection, which comprises over 18,000 works by more than 2800 artists, includes major works and materials from the estate of Edward Hopper, the largest public collection of works by Alexander Calder, as well as significant works by Jasper Johns, Donald Judd, Agnes Martin, Bruce Nauman, Georgia O'Keeffe, Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, Kiki Smith, and Andy Warhol, among other artists. With its history of exhibiting the most promising and influential American artists and provoking intense critical and public debate, the Whitney's signature show, the Biennial, has become the most important survey of the state of contemporary art in America today. Founded in 1930, the Whitney was first housed on West 8th Street. The Museum relocated in 1954 to West 54th Street and in 1966 inaugurated its present home, designed by Marcel Breuer, at 945 Madison Avenue. The Whitney is currently moving ahead with plans to build a second facility, designed by Renzo Piano, located in downtown Manhattan at the entrance to the High Line in the Meatpacking District.

Image: Walter Gutman (1903–1986). Trisha Brown Co. at the Whitney Museum 1971–The Rehearsal, 1971. 16mm film transferred to video, color, silent; 8:30 minutes. Courtesy Anthology Film Archives

Press Contact
Stephen Soba, Molly Gross
(212) 570-3633 Fax. (212) 570-4169 pressoffice@whitney.org

The Whitney Museum is located at 945 Madison Avenue at 75th Street, New York City.
Museum hours are: Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Friday from 1 p.m. to 9 p.m., closed Monday and Tuesday.
General admission: $18. Full-time students and visitors ages 19–25 and 62 & over: $12. Visitors 18 & under and Whitney members free.
Admission to the Kaufman Astoria Studios Film & Video Gallery only: $6. Admission is pay-what-you-wish on Fridays, 6–9 p.m.

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