ABSTRACT
In Chapter 3 we looked at some of the ways in which both Graham and Pollock drew inspiration from a variety of “primitive” sources. We also examined the parallels between Cunningham’s repudiation of Graham and Johns’s and Rauschenberg’s repudiation of Pollock. But primitivism plays a very different role in the dance world than it does in that of the visual arts. When Rauschenberg and Johns turn away from the primitivist aspects of abstract expressionism, they’re breaking with one specific period in the history of painting. But when Cunningham rejects the primitive element in the choreography of Graham, he’s parting ways with something that many people think of as fundamental to virtually all forms of dance. Consequently, this aspect of Cunningham’s legacy deserves to be explored in greater detail.
