Work in Progress: Calder and Performance

This three-week course will consider the influence of performance on a range of artistic practices throughout the 20th and 21st century art, using the exhibition Calder: Hypermobility as a point of departure. Alexander Calder was fascinated by the performing arts, exemplified by his celebrated work Calder's Circus (1926–31) but also present through his lifelong engagement with a wide array of modern dance, theater and film. Focusing on the shift from live to recorded performance, we will consider the multiple ways in which Calder explored motion and movement, both in its live and mediated versions. With each class we will broaden our range to consider how Calder's seminal innovation—to take the static form of sculpture and set into motion—resonates with an array of artworks that take up the call to incorporate performance into the visual arts. Course participants will have an opportunity to spend extended time in the galleries, and to meet with one of the artists commissioned to make a new performance in connection with the exhibition Calder: Hypermobility.  

Instructor: Josh Lubin-Levy is a Joan Tisch Teaching Fellow at the Whitney and a PhD candidate in Performance Studies at NYU. For the past ten years he has worked as a dance dramaturgy and performance curator and he recently joined the faculty at Bard College as a Visiting Assistant Professor in Theater and Performance.

Thursdays, October 5, 12, 19
2–3:30 pm

Series: $325 non-members; $250 members

Tickets are required. Please email courses@whitney.org for inquiries and information about this course.