There is a terrific dichotomy in the photographs of dancers taken by George Platt Lynes (American Ballet Theater's official photographer from 1934) between the '30s and the '40s. Maria Tallchief is portrayed as she exercises, her outstretched legs at a right angle, while ballerinas Mary Ellen Moylan and Diana Adams stylishly pose in their tutus in stark sets. Though the images have a modernist flair about them, they still look conventional.
Lynes' images of naked or scantily dressed male performers Fred Danieli, Nicholas Magallanes and Ralph McWilliams are instead erotically charged: in these private works the young men look like perfect marble statues or languidly pose for the camera.
You could easily read these images from different points of view, they do tell indeed a narrative that intertwines the history of dance with wider issues like gender, sexuality, homosexual erotics and the power of the body.
The 16 silver gelatine prints by George Platt Lynes are part of Nick Mauss' exhibition "Transmissions", currently on at the Whitney Museum of American Art (until May 14th).
Mauss acted as curator, artist, choreographer, scholar and writer for this event that focuses on the relationship between American modernist ballet and the avant-garde in New York from the 1930s to the '50s.
Mauss selected photographs, paintings, sketches, drawings, illustrations and sculptures from the Whitney Museum archives and from the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction and the Jerome Robbins Dance Division of the New York Public Library, where he studied photographs and slides that highlighted the connections between dance and art history.
Mauss argues that something important happened in New York between the '30s and the '40s: "The avant-garde experiments of the previous decades in Europe incited a particularly intense cross-contamination, and an overt articulation of homosexual erotics long before the emergence of a public language arond queerness," he states in a press release.
"Looking at modern American art of this period through the prism of ballet reveals a tangle of interrelationships, collaborations, derivations, and hybrid aesthetic programs that feel surprisingly contemporary."
In this curatorial adventure that promotes a unity of the senses and a synesthetic approach to art and dance, Mauss proceeded by comparisons and juxtapositions: sculptures of figures and dancers by Elie Nadelman are presented next to modernist and streamlined pieces such as John Storrs' aluminum, brass, copper and wood "Forms in Space" (1924) or Man Ray's nickel plated and painted bronze "New York" (1917/1966), while Mauss' own works - enamelled mirror panels inspired by his archival research and created employing the verre églomisé, a reverse glass painting technique popular in the 1930s - add a touch of colour to the spaces.
Cecil Beaton's photograph of poet Charles Henri Ford in a costume designed by Salvador Dali for Vogue (1937) may not be so unknown in the digital era, but some of the black and white 1930s images by photographic collective PaJaMa (Paul Cadmus, Jared French and his wife Margaret) are less known to the public and they look intimate and sensually evocative with bodies posing in geometrical configurations.
Costume fans with a interest in ballet will rejoice at seeing Pavel Tchelitchew's modernist costume sketches for Ode (choreographed by Leonide Massine for Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes in 1928), Variations on Euclid (premiered as Expanding Universe; choreographed by Ruth Page, c. 1932) and Errante (choreographed by George Balanchine for Les Ballets 1933, c. 1933) and his set design for Nobilissima Visione (also known as St.Francis; choreographed by Leonide Massine for the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, c. 1938).
Fashion and ballet combine instead in Tchelitchew's black and white photograph of a window display for shoes inspired by the Nobilissima Visione set (a display that wouldn't look out of place in one of the trademark windows dedicated to art and footwear in the Florence-based Ferragamo shop...).
Visitors with an interest in more traditional costume designs with a fantastically whimsical twist about them will instead prefer Dorothea Tanning's colourful sketches for dancers Merriam Lanova, Beatrice Tompkins and Shirley Weaver in The Night Shadow (choreographed by George Balanchine for the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, 1945) that featured uncanny face masks and headdresses (see the bejwelled antlers on the deer's head, the flamboyant feathered bird head or the ship complete with waves...).
Mauss also tried to establish new correspondences: a black and white photograph shows dancer Jacques D'Amboise in a translucent costume designed by Paul Cadmus for Filling Station, choreographed by Lew Christensen, and Mauss recreated a similar costume in see-through organza, trimmed in red and with a red heart embroidered on the chest.
There is more to discover between stage models, Serge Diaghilev's calling card, an enigmatic photograph of Loïe Fuller's staring eyes, ballet programmes and extracts of videos showing L'Après-midi d'un faune (Afternoon of a faun, 1938), Aurora's Wedding (1941), La fille mal gardée (1942) and Harlequinade (1956) and rehearsals of Balanchine's choreographies.
Among the most interesting photographs there are 800 mesmerising (and rarely seen) colour slides by dance critic Carl Van Vechten projected on a wall, and unique gems that show key moments in the history of dance, such as Martha Swope's black and white image showing dancers Arthur Mitchell, the first African American principal dancer in a major American ballet company, and Diana Adams, a white, Southern ballerina, rehearsing a pas de deux for Agon (1957). The exhibition notes remind us that their coupling was met with controversy and television stations refused to air recordings of their pas de deux in Agon until 1968; after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Mitchell went on to co-found the Dance Theatre of Harlem with Karel Shook.
"Transmissions" also features a new choreography, there are indeed daily performaces in the Whitney's eighth-floor Hurst Family Galleries, conceived by Mauss in response to archival material and the objects in the show.
You may argue that at the moment there is a trend for performances inside art galleries and museums, as institutions are trying to find new exhibition formats.
But, rather than being just another excuse to attract visitors, this choreography involving 16 rotating dancers (from professional ballerinas to modern dancers) is directly inspired by the materials included in the exhibition and responds to them.
Watch the dancers perform and you will see movements that evoke the daily gestures and routines of a dancer's practice including barre exercises, but also a balance between art and contemporary dance, what Mauss calls the "movements, styles and irreverent attitudes" of poses borrowed from the exhibited images and film footage.
American painter Gerald Murphy who helped repainting the Ballets Russes' scenery soon after arriving in Paris, stated that the corps de ballet was "the focal center of the whole modern movement in the arts." After seeing "Transmissions", you will realise that Murphy's statement can be applied not just to one but to different troupes that, through their choreographies, costumes and stories, inspired and informed many other artists, creative minds and disciplines.
Image credits for this post
1. George Platt Lynes, Tex Smutney, 1941. Gelatin silver print, 8 × 10 in. (20.3 × 25.4 cm). Collection of the Kinsey Institute, Indiana University; courtesy the George Platt Lynes Estate.
2. George Platt Lynes, Ralph McWilliams, 1952, 1941. Gelatin silver print, 8 × 10 in. (20.3 × 25.4 cm). Collection of the Kinsey Institute, Indiana University; courtesy the George Platt Lynes Estate.
3. Nick Mauss (b. 1980), are you being, 2015. Ink, marker, pastel, gouache, and cut paper, 23 1/2 x 18 in. (59.7 x 45.7 cm). Collection of the artist, image courtesy the artist and 303 Gallery.
4. Installation view of Nick Mauss: Transmissions (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 2018). Wall installation: Nick Mauss, Images in Mind, 2018. Left to right: Documentation of George Balachine choreography in rehearsals, 1951-58; Pavel Tchelitchew, Interior Landscape Skull, 1949; John Storrs, Forms in Space #1, c. 1924; Elie Nadelman, Two Circus Women, c. 1928-29; Gustav Natorp figure (formerly owned by Lincoln Kirstein), 1898; Sturtevant, Relâche, 1967; Ilse Bing, Untitled (Skyscrapers, night, NY),1936; Isle Bing, Dead End II, 1936. Photograph by Ron Amstutz. Digital image © Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
5. Installation view of Nick Mauss: Transmissions (Whitney Museum of American Art, 2018). Left to right: Carl Van Vechten, Al Bledger of the Von Grona (American) Negro Ballet, 1938; Carl Van Vechten, Al Bledger of the Von Grona (American) Negro Ballet, 1938; Carl Van Vechten, Carl Van Vechten slideshow, 1940-64; Martha Swope, Dancers Arthur Mitchell, Diana Adams, George Balachine, and Igor Stravinsky during rehearsals for Agon, choreographed by George Balachine for New York City Ballet, 1957; New York City Ballet souvenir program from the company’s second European Tour through Spain, France, Italy, the Netherlands, England, Scotland, and Germany, 1952; Charles Henri Ford, Ballet for Tamara Toumanova, in View (2nd series, no. 4, January 1943, "AMERICANA FANTASTICA"), 1943; Ballet Theatre program for the 1951-52 Season, 1951; Ruth Page photographed by Maurice Seymore in costume designed by Pawel Tchelitchew for Page's 'Variations on Euclid', in the publication Ruth Page and Harald Kreutzberg, with poem and introduction by Mark Turbyfill, c. 1936; George Platt Lynes, Dancer Jacques D'Amboise in a costume designed by Paul Cadmus for Filling Station, choreographed by Lew Christensen for Ballet Caravan, 1938; George Platt Lynes, Carbaret performer James Leslie Daniels, c. 1937; Pavel Tchelitchew, Costume designs for Errante, choreographed by George Balachine for Les Ballets 1933, c. 1933; Pavel Tchelitchew, Set design by Pavel Tchelitchew for Nobilissima Visione (also known as St. Francis), choreographed by Leonide Massine for Ballets Russe de Monte Carlo, c. 1938; Pavel Tchelitchew, Window display for shoes after set design by Pavel Tchelitchew for Nobilissima Visione (also known as St. Francis), c. 1938. Photograph by Ron Amstutz. Digital image © Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
6. Installation view of Nick Mauss: Transmissions (Whitney Museum of American Art, 2018). Left to right: George Platt Lynes, Paul Cadmus and Jared French (artists), 1937; George Platt Lynes, Laurie Douglas Harvach (model), 1944; George Platt Lynes, Nicholas Magallanes (dancer), c. 1938; George Platt Lynes, Diana Adams (dancer), 1951; Ann Barzel, 1936-52; George Platt Lynes, Maria Tallchief (dancer), 1953; George Platt Lynes, John Van Sikken, c. 1940; George Platt Lynes, John Leaphart and Bill Blizzard, 1953. Photograph by Ron Amstutz. Digital image © Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
7. "Lanova" (1945), by Dorothea Tanning © Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
8. "Weaver" (1945), by Dorothea Tanning © Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
9. "Tompkins" (1945), by Dorothea Tanning © Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
10. Design for Balanchine Ballet The Night Shadow (1945), by Dorothea Tanning © Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
11. Carl Van Vechten slides, photographed by Nick Mauss. Courtesy The Carl Van Vechten Trust and The Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.
12. Nick Mauss (b. 1980), Transmissions, Whitney Museum of American Art. Performer pictured: Anna Witenberg, March 13, 2018. Photograph © Paula Court.
13. Nick Mauss (b. 1980), Transmissions, Whitney Museum of American Art.
Performers pictured: Jasmine Hearn and Anna Witenberg, March 13, 2018. Photograph © Paula Court.
14. Nick Mauss (b. 1980), Transmissions, Whitney Museum of American Art. Performers pictured: Ahmaud Culver, Jasmine Hearn, and Anna Witenberg, March 13, 2018. Photograph © Paula Court.
15. Nick Mauss (b. 1980), Transmissions, Whitney Museum of American Art. Performers pictured: Ahmaud Culver, Alexandra Albrecht, Burr Johnson, and Matilda Sakamoto, March 13, 2018. Photograph © Paula Court.
16. Nick Mauss (b. 1980), Transmissions, Whitney Museum of American Art. Performers pictured: Ahmaud Culver, Alexandra Albrecht, Burr Johnson, and Matilda Sakamoto, March 13, 2018. Photograph © Paula Court.
17. Installation view of Nick Mauss: Transmissions (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 2018). Left to right, front: George Platt Lynes, Tex Smutney, 1941; George Platt Lynes, Paul Cadmus and Jared French (artists), 1937; George Platt Lynes, Laurie Douglas Harvach (model), 1944; George Platt Lynes, Nicholas Magallanes (dancer), c. 1938; George Platt Lynes, Diana Adams (dancer), 1951. Left to right, back (dancers): Kristina Bermudez; Brandon Collwes; Matilda Sakamoto; Quenton Stuckey. Photograph by Ron Amstutz. Digital image © Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
18. Installation view of Nick Mauss: Transmissions (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 2018). Left to right: Elie Nadleman, Untitled, c. 1938-46; Elie Nadelman, Untitled, c. 1938-46; Elie Nadleman, Untitled, c. 1938-46; Elie Nadelman, Untitled, c. 1938-46; Elie Nadelman, Untitled, c. 1938-46. Photograph by Ron Amstutz. Digital image © Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
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