{"data":{"id":"13626","type":"artist","attributes":{"id":13626,"topgoose_id":110,"tms_id":13626,"display_name":"Charles Atlas","sort_name":"Atlas Charles","display_date":"1949–","begin_date":"1949","end_date":"0","biography":"\u003cp\u003eCharles Atlas moved to New York in the\nearly 1970s and soon began to work as\nassistant stage manager with the Merce\nCunningham Dance Company. After\nexperimenting for the first time with video—\nthen still a new technology—he became\nfilmmaker in residence with the company,\nserving in that capacity from 1974 to\n1983. His collaboration with Cunningham,\nwhich continued until the choreographer’s\ndeath in 2009, forged a genre Atlas\ncalled “media-dance.”\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFusing the techniques of documentary filmmaking with video art, Atlas collaborated with other artists as well, among them Leigh Bowery, Karole Armitage, \u003ca href=\"/artists/9205\"\u003eMarina Abramović\u003c/a\u003e, and \u003ca href=\"/artists/12527\"\u003eYvonne Rainer\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn 1984 Atlas met the young\nScottish-born dancer and choreographer\nMichael Clark, whose newly formed\nLondon company channeled the postpunk\nculture of the era into cutting-edge\ndance. Atlas collaborated with Clark\non\u003cem\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/em\u003e\u003ca href=\"/collection/works/42268\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eHail the New Puritan\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e, a feature-length work structured as “twenty-four hours in the life of a dancer” and peppered with performances and dreamlike sequences, blurring the line between documentary and fiction.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWith production design by Leigh Bowery and music by the Fall and Glenn Branca, the work employs cinema- verité techniques to create a narrative that loosely follows Clark as he prepares for a performance titled “New Puritans.” Atlas drew inspiration for this surreal performance-portrait from works that had long been important to him, such as 1940s Hollywood musicals, the Beatles’ \u003cem\u003eA Hard Day’s Night\u0026nbsp;\u003c/em\u003e(1964), and \u003ca href=\"/artists/1384\"\u003eAndy Warhol\u003c/a\u003e’s\u003cem\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/em\u003e\u003ca href=\"/collection/works/43429\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eChelsea Girls\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/em\u003e(1966). As Atlas later said,\n“It wasn’t like finding the truth, it was\nlike doing something fun with the truth.”\u003c/p\u003e","on_view":false,"artport":false,"biennial":true,"collection":true,"ulan_id":"500333810","wikidata_id":"Q5075231","created_at":"2017-08-30T15:29:14.000-04:00","updated_at":"2026-03-26T07:01:26.341-04:00","links":{"artworks":"/api/artists/13626/artworks","exhibitions":"/api/artists/13626/exhibitions"}}}}