ABSTRACT COMPOSERS AND VISUAL ARTISTS THEY WORKED WITH

By Aslesha and Emma 9BB

John Cage■ John Cage (composer), Robert Rauchenburg (artist), Merce

Cunningham (choreographer).■ John Milton Cage Jr. was an American composer, music theorist, writer,

and artist■ He is best known for revolutionizing modern music through his

incorporation of unconventional instrumentation and the idea of environmental music dictated by chance.

■ Cage is famous not only for his radical works, like 4'33" (1952), but also for his innovative collaborations with artists like Merce Cunningham and Robert Rauschenberg.

■ These partnerships helped break down the divisions between the various realms of art production, such as music, performance, painting, and dance, allowing for new interdisciplinary work to be produced.

John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Robert Rauschenberg, London, 1964. 

John Cage (composer), Jackson Pollock (artist)

■ Jackson Pollock and John Cage are legends in American history.

■ Pollock and Cage were aesthetic extremes of each other.■ Pollock sought to make paintings that were entirely an

expression of his manic inner ego, whereas Cage fought to remove himself completely from the decision-making process involved in art.

■ And yet, Pollock and Cage did have one thing in common. They shared a common adversary: hundreds of years of European history, theory, and dominance in the arts.

Jackson Pollock and John Cage

Jackson Pollock, “Orange Head” (c. 1938-41), oil on canvas, 18 3/4 x 15 3/4 inches

Igor Stravinsky

■ Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky was a Russian (and later, a naturalized French and American) composer, pianist and conductor.

■ He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the 20th century. 

■ He first achieved international fame with three ballets commissioned and first performed in Paris by Diaghilev's Ballets Russes: The Firebird (1910),Petrushka (1911) and The Rite of Spring (1913). 

Igor Stravinksy (composer), Serge Diaghilev (impresario), Nicholas Roerich (set & costume

designer)■ The Rite of Spring  is a ballet and

orchestral concert work by the Russian composer Igor Stravinsky.

■ It was written for the 1913 Paris season of Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes company; the original choreography was by Vaslav Nijinsky, with stage designs and costumes by Nicholas Roerich.

■ It is widely considered to be one of the most influential musical works of the 20th century.

Igor Stravinsky and Pina Bausch

■ To celebrate its hundredth anniversary, several danced versions of The Rite of Spring were presented, from the ‘scandalous’ Nijinsky work created in collaboration with Igor Stravinsky.

■ It premiered at the very same theatre on the 29th May, 1913, to the landmark 1975 ‘contemporary’ staging of the work by Pina Bausch, when she covered the stage with damp earth.

■ These two outstanding versions have rarely been surpassed. 

Le Sacre du printemps (The Rite of Spring)

Tanztheater WuppertalChoreography: Pina Bausch

Philip GlassPhilip Glass is an American composer, and is known as one of the most known influential music composers of the 20th century. He was born on January 31, 1937, in Baltimore, Maryland and is currently 78 years old. He attended the university of Chicago, Peabody institute and Julliard School. He is known to have produced music for the Fantastic Four, Mr. nice, Elena and many more. Some of his famous compositions include Einstein on the Beach, The Perfect American, the voyage, Symphony no.4 etc.

Phillip Glass (composer), Sol Lewitt (visual artist & film), Lucida Childs (choreography)

Philip Glass has collaborated with Lucida Childs to perform a dance on Einstein on the Beach.He has also worked with Sol Lewitt to create other dance routines along side the compositions that Glass has created.

THE END.