On Mon, 27 Jul 2009, Doug Henwood wrote:
> Sad to read of Merce Cunningham's death. Dying at 90 is hardly premature, but
> still.... Wonderful stuff. Glad we got to see that nearly 90 show at BAM a
> few months ago (with Sonic Youth!). Was he the last great embodiment of that
> mid-20th century high modernist avant garde?
Probably yes. One could make a case for Louise Bourgeois as the last -- still alive at 96, still making work and still running a weekly artist's salon. But while she was making great work in 40, 50s and 60s (and back then it was unflichingly abstract and modernist), she didn't win widespread recognition as a great artist until the 1970s and 80s. So her icon years seem to place her in the subsequent era.
The free performance of his last work this coming weekend at the river to river festival will be the last he rehearsed and directed.
BTW, his artistic will, which he made public last month, is kind of interesting:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/10/arts/dance/10merc.html
All the dancers in his troupe get a year's severance.
Michael