Modern Art and Modern Movement: Images of Dance in American Art, c. 1900-1950

Abstract

"Modern Art and Modern Movement: Images of Dance in American Art, c. 1900-1950," considers the intersections and interrelations of two of the major artistic developments of the twentieth century, modern dance and modern art, through an examination of the paintings, sculptures, photographs, and drawings that engage simultaneously with these developing art forms. The first chapter introduces cultural attitudes toward dance performances in the United States at the beginning of the twentieth century with an examination of Everett Shinn's, Louis Kronberg's, and Malvina Hoffman's depictions of European ballet dancers, such as Russian Anna Pavlova. Chapter two discusses images of Isadora Duncan, the mother of modern dance, created by Abraham Walkowitz, John Sloan, Robert Henri, and Arthur B. Davies. Constructs of "Orientalism" and "the Other" in images of dance created by Paul Manship, Gaston Lachaise, and Alexander Calder, artists who felt the influence of the Indian dances of Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn and l'art n�_��gre fervor surrounding Josephine Baker, respectively, make up chapter three. Chapter four examines the of art of H. Lyman Sayen, Stanton Macdonald-Wright, Morgan Russell, and Franz Kline who were inspired by the Ballets Russes's lavish productions and consequently sought to convey the relationship between dance, costume, music, and set. Chapter five discusses depictions of the prolific choreographer and modern dancer Martha Graham by photographer Barbara Morgan, painter Paul Meltsner, and sculptors David Smith and Louise Nevelson. The concluding chapter examines the gestural abstractions of Jackson Pollock and the mobiles of Alexander Calder; artists who were not responding to individual dancers or specific dance styles, but whose involvement with dance was at a much more basic level. Pollock and Calder incorporated the fundamental element of dance, movement through time, into their works of art.