Caned Dance from Merce Cunningham Portfolio
Bruce Nauman
American, born 1941
1974, published 1975
A lithograph from Bruce Nauman’s Merce Cunningham Portfolio that translates the rhythms of Cunningham’s choreography into layered, painterly dabs of color across the sheet.
At first glance it reads as a shimmering field of repeated fingertip-like marks—yellow, green, and salmon strokes—stacked into swirling oval paths that seem to pulse and sweep across the paper.
Part of 1970s experiments linking visual art and dance, it uses printmaking’s repetition and color layering to make temporal movement visible and to expand how prints can record and reinterpret performance.
Medium
Lithograph from a portfolio of three screenprints, one lithograph, one lithograph and screenprint, one embossing with stencil, and one die-cut
Dimensions
composition and sheet: 22 x 30 1/16" (55.9 x 76.3 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Purchase
Accession
120.1975.4
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
