Review
"The inventive genius of Merce Cunningham is limitless. "--Susan Sontag
"It is such a pleasure to learn about the genius of Mr. Cunningham’s dances. I love his wit and his unique intelligence. " --Mark Morris
"Other Animals reveals the whimsical personality and unique vision of the world’s greatest living choreography."--Cleveland Plain Dealer, August 11, 2002
. . . the nearly beatific equanimity of his [Cunningham’s] artistic disposition is made luminously clear in Other Animals . . . it is hard to believe that such a graphic gift lay dormant until he was past 60."--Art on Paper, July/August 2002
The drawings are quirky, riveting and anything but bland . . . his bird and animal drawings reflect an intimate side of Cunningham that even his closest friends rarely get to see."--New Yorker, July 8, 2002
"His publisher Aperture, and his editor Melissa Harris, have done Mr. Cunningham proud."--The New York Times, July 31, 2002
"It is such a pleasure to learn about the genius of Mr. Cunningham’s dances. I love his wit and his unique intelligence. " --Mark Morris
"Other Animals reveals the whimsical personality and unique vision of the world’s greatest living choreography."--Cleveland Plain Dealer, August 11, 2002
. . . the nearly beatific equanimity of his [Cunningham’s] artistic disposition is made luminously clear in Other Animals . . . it is hard to believe that such a graphic gift lay dormant until he was past 60."--Art on Paper, July/August 2002
The drawings are quirky, riveting and anything but bland . . . his bird and animal drawings reflect an intimate side of Cunningham that even his closest friends rarely get to see."--New Yorker, July 8, 2002
"His publisher Aperture, and his editor Melissa Harris, have done Mr. Cunningham proud."--The New York Times, July 31, 2002
Book Description
Known worldwide for his remarkable, groundbreaking choreography, Merce Cunningham has a secret: he also draws. For the first time he opens a door into his fantastical animal kingdom with Aperture's publication of Other Animals. Cunningham, an obsessive observer with a colossal sense of humor, revels in nature with the same childlike vision and expressiveness that infuses his dances. Like his dances, his drawings are impressions, inventions, gestures, and interactions. Cunningham introduces us to a bird riding a turtle, a bizarre hybrid creature wearing a fashionable sweater, and an ostrich that rivals the gracefulness of his dancers. The drawings are collected in a beautifully produced, colorful volume, with selected entries from Cunningham's journals and photographs of some of his dances and their notations. These drawings offer a key to understanding how Cunningham renders his vision of the world through dance--and how his vision is translated into costuming through his collaboration with designers such as Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçonnes. Essays by David Vaughan and Merce Cunningham. Hardcover, 8.5 x 9.75 in./96 pgs
