Morris,Dunn dance,BANG4 Arts Festival,Richmond Professional Institute, RPI>VCU,1963-1967

Robert Morris, Judith Dunn, dance, Bang4 Arts Festival, Richmond, Virginia, RPI, RIchmond Professional Institute, Spring 1967

Robert Morris , Judith Dunn, and Company, dance proformance, BANG 3, Arts Festival, Richmond Professional Institute, RPI, now called VCU, Richmond, Virginia, USA

1967
photography by Jerry Lake©

photography from IMAGE - A Journal of Creative Ideas, Published at the Richmond Professional Institure, Volume five, Numbre One, 1967, WINTER, published by the student body. ©Copyright-1966, from page 27

The Spring season RPI held the 'BANG' Arts Festival and Film Festival. One year I designed and silk-screen printed a poster, that had a super enlarged antique print I had found of a baby screaming, at the top of the poster I put large fuchsia pink 19th century carnival wood type with the letters: B A N G. The posters were so popular that they often got taken down as fast as they were put in place.John Cage, Gordon Mumma, and Allen Kaprow did happenings. Judith Dunn and Robert Morris preformed a nude dance work that was very minimal, extraordinarily beautiful, and emotionally moving, at one of these BANG Festivals. (read below)

{RECENTLY FOUND article on how Theresa Pollak saved Bernard Martin's job

and mentions all five of my top professors: Richard Carlyon, Jim Bumgardner, John Bowie and Willie Pilchard, all brought in to explain the remarkable spirit moving dance by Judith Dunn and Robert Morris .

at:

Richmond Magazine - Feature

... RPI (what would become VCU), where, in the class of the late Jewett Campbell, he realized ...

www.richmond.com/richmondmagazine/output.cfm?ID=2617667

EXCERPT: The Sixth Annual Theresa Pollak Prizes

QUOTE: "For the sixth year, Richmond magazine recognizes those who enrich us with their talents and continue the creative legacy of Theresa Pollak, founder of VCU's School of the Arts. To get a glimpse of Pollak's own work, visit VCU's Anderson Gallery from Jan. 23 to March 7, 2004, when an exhibit primarily focused on her works on paper will be presented.

Harry Kollatz Jr.

Lifetime Achievement: Bernard Martin

Theresa Pollak saved Bernard Martin's job.

Five young professors were summoned before Richmond Professional Institute president Dr. George J. Oliver the day after a dance performance that was part of a weeklong arts festival Martin helped organize and promote. Visiting sculptor/dancer Robert Morris, in the nude, led his troupe in a piece called "The Watermelon Switch."

Martin, Richard Carlyon, Jim Bumgardner, John Bowie and Willie Pilchard were brought in to explain their involvement. "I am certain he intended to fire all five of us," Martin recalls with a rueful chuckle. "Then came this slight knocking on the door, and in comes Theresa Pollak, this diminutive, white-haired Jewish lady. And she says, "Dr. Oliver, I know you were concerned about the performance last night, but it was lovely. I went home and lay awake remembering its beauty, how stirring it was," and she went on in rapturous language. Then Dr. Oliver thanked and dismissed her and glared at us and said, "Never do this again! There will never be any more nude dance performances at RPI as long as I'm president." If he'd fired the five of us, the direction of that art school in the 1960s would?ve gone in a very different direction."

Martin grew up in Furham,Va., "on the edge of Appalachia, with moonshiners, where nobody had ever heard of Rembrandt or Picasso," he says. " END QUOTE---continues:]

BANG 1

Spring time 1963; PLACE: Richmond, Virginia, U.S.A.April 25,1967;

BANG 1: 1963, Arts Festival, Richmond Professional Institute, RPI, now called VCU, Richmond, Virginia, USA

PLEASE CONTACT ME IF YOU HAVE INFORMATION ON BANG 1, 1963

I remember Jesse Fuller performing at RPI, and his performance may have been at BANG 1 in 1963. He was billed as a one man band Blues singer.-"bandful of instruments operated by various parts of his anatomy, Bay Area-legend Jesse Fuller was a folk-music favorite"-

LINK: Jesse "The Lone Cat" Fuller

Jesse "The Lone Cat" Fuller Introduction. One reason that the Grateful Dead and their music have endured for over a quarter of a century has been...

| www.taco.com/roots/fuller.html

"Jesse Fuller was born in 1896 in Jonesboro, Georgia. He never knew his father and his mother gave him away to another family at the age of seven. He was beaten and starved, "treated worse than a dog" he said.Jesse Fuller died on January 30, 1976 in Oakland (California)."

BANG 2

April 19 to 26, 1964; PLACE: Richmond, Virginia, U.S.A.

BANG 2: 1964, April 19 to 26, 1964: Arts Festival, Richmond Professional Institute, RPI, now called VCU, Richmond, Virginia, USA

POSTER:

"RPI SPRING ARTS FESTIVAL -

Synthesis- Communications- Drama- Music- Dance: JJ Johnston, L. Childs, R. Morris & Y. Rainer -

Panel: T. B. Hess, L. Rivers, R. Lichtenstien, A. Solomon-

Mississippi John Hurt- 2nd Film Festival, April 19 to 26, Gymnasium, Full Tickets $5.00 & $7.00."

POSTER DESIGN and silk screened printing by : Carol L. Sutton. The screaming baby head was taken from an early line engraving of a baby, that I blew up multiple times in the dark room to super enlarged the antique print and then I printed it on clear acetate in order to make it into a silk screen. The wood block letters were property of the RPI typography department and I used them as they were except that I increased their size. I put large pink 19th century carnival wood type with the letters: B A N G 2 .I would like to give credit to my teacher of typograpy, Mr. Willard Pilchard, who helped me with the type aspects and general support. The ink was black, and a flourescent fuchsia pink for the word: BANG 2. I wanted to make something that had clear impact and could be seen from a great distance away. I think of this design as rather classical.The posters were so popular that they often got taken down as fast as they were put in place. CLS

ARTISTS:

J. J. Johnston, American tenor saxophonist JJ Johnston, is James Louis Johnson, b. January 22, 1924, Indianapolis, USA, d. February 4, 2001, LINK: J.J. Johnson http://www.jazzmasters.nl/johnson.htm

________________

L. Childs in Lucinda Childs, dancer,

LINK: Lucinda Childs Choreographer. Lucinda Childs began her career as choreographer and performer in 1963 as an original member of the Judson Dance...

| www.losangelesopera.com/production/preformer.asp?personid=241

________________

R. Morris is Robert Morris.-LINK: Guggenheim Collection - Artist - Morris - Biography

Born February 9, 1931, in Kansas City, Missouri, Robert Morris turned to art and art criticism ... known as the Judson Dance Theater, for which

| www.guggenheimcollection.org/site/artist_bio_115.html

________________

Y. Rainer is Yvonne Rainer,

LINK:

Rainer, Yvonne (1934- ), American modern dance choreographer and film-maker, one of the leading representatives of..

"Dancer, choreographer, performer, filmmaker and writer Yvonne Rainer, who began choreographing in 1961 and made her first film in 1967.Yvonne Rainer was one of the first dance practitioners to make a wholesale return to the 'everyday body' as an alternative to the 'performing body' which displays skills and virtuosity."

http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/03/rainer.html

________________

Panel: T. B. Hess, L. Rivers, R. Lichtenstien, A. Solomon-

T. B. Hess is Thomas B. Hess, author; and , editor of Art News magazine, who wrote many art books, include one on Hans Hoffman; quote: from website that list Hoffman books:http://www.binbooks.com/books/photo/i/l/51636AEFF8

"Although critics Thomas B. Hess and Harold Rosenberg became staunch Hofmann fans in the mid-1950s, it took Hofmann a long time to win their support and that of others such as painter and critic Walter Darby Bannard, who defended his stylistic plurality with the assertion that "it's the picture that is obliged to be consistent, not the artist." Greenberg partially blamed the art-viewing public for not accepting the work of any artist who went beyond one easily identifiable style, but he did concede that "the variety of manners and even of styles in which [Hofmann] works would conspire to deprive even the most sympathetic public of a clear idea of his achievement."

L. Rivers is Larry Rivers, (American, 1923-2002)

LINK:Larry Rivers Online

Larry Rivers [American Pop Painter and Sculptor, 1923-2002] Guide to pictures of works by Larry Rivers in art museum sites and image archives...

| www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/rivers_larry.html

R. Lichtenstien is Roy Lichtenstein [American Pop Artist, 1923-1997] Link: http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/lichtenstein_roy.html

A. Solomon is the important Pop Art proponent and curator Alan Solomon (author of an informative essay "New York, New Art Scene"; which appears in a book on ANDY WARHOL Boston, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston., 1966, First Edition; and New York: Holt Rinehart Winston, 1967.

Broad Quarto. 341 pp. " , Quote: "the earliest printed details on The Factory's silkscreen techniques, and some reproductions on fluorescent pink paper." web link:http://www.antiqbook.com/boox/ara/008170.shtml and book with pictures: http://www.ewolfs.com/past_auctions/oct_books/117.html. This book includes many names famous in the New York Art Scene including Larry Poons, Lee Bontecou, Frank Stella, Ken Noland, Robert Rauschenberg.

________________

Mississippi John Hurt-Blues legend was born March 8, 1892 in Carroll County, Mississippi. and Died November 2, 1966, Grenada, MS

LINK:Mississippi John Hurt and the Delta Blues

Mississippi John Hurt Links All other Mississippi John Hurt links I have located on the web.

| www.mindspring.com/~dennist/

BANG 3

Monday, March 21, 1965 to Friday, March 25, 1965

; PLACE: Richmond, Virginia, U.S.A.

BANG 3: 1965, Arts Festival, Richmond Professional Institute, RPI, now called VCU, Richmond, Virginia, USA

PROMOTIONAL PRESS RELEASE FLYER FOR RPI BANG3, 1965, design by Carol Sutton�

Monday, March 21st: (1965) - 8:15 P.M.Scottish Rite Temple -JOHN CAGE AND DAVID TUDOR IN CONCERT; Richmond, Virginia performance of "John Cage: Variations V"; which will be performed the following year in Germany in 1967. ""John Cage: Variations V"performed by John Cage, Gordon Mumma, David Tudor, with the Merce Cunningham Dance Co., directed by Hansjorg Pauli co-production Norddeutscher Rundfunk / Sveriges Radio, Hamburg, Germany, 1966. web: http://brainwashed.com/mumma/perf.html

" press silkscreen, by Carol Sutton©, 1965

BIRD PARK LAKE: A VUE-GRAM

JUDITH DUNN IN CONCERT

SYNTHESIS II, a presentation conceived and performed by students enrolled in the Richmond Professional Institute.

BANG3: 1965, Arts Festival, Richmond Professional Institute, RPI, now called VCU, Richmond, Virginia, USA

The PROMOTIONAL PRESS RELEASE FLYER FOR RPI BANG3, 1965:

This flyer to promote the BANG, BANG, BANG, or BANG3, was designed by a group headed by Carol Lorraine Sutton or Carol Lorraine Sutton-Martin and was a unique design. Carol Sutton, - I designed the above, 'John Cage & David Tudor-Variations "VI", which I silksreened onto a cuts from a running band of computer paper, where I drew heavy black outlines around the photogaphed heads of John Cage and David Tudor. I was not happy with the David Tudor photo, but it was the only one I had available at the time of the promotion production.

The concept was Carol Sutton's idea, and the group was made up of a collection of about five top Commercial Art & Design students at RPI. I know Suzanne Mastraco, designed the Judith Dunn dance silkscreen, but I am not sure who were the other designers. The concept was to have each person responsible to design a page for a specific event and then produce it. The pages, plus the information sheet, would all be inserted into a plain brown paper bag and shrink sealed in plastic wrap and then mailed out to the Richmond, Virginia arts community. Probably about 300 to 500 were produced. The individual designers and artists were not given any credit in the information sheets. The concept was approved by our teachers, a team made up of: Richard Carlyon, Jewett Campbell, Jonathan Bowie, Willard Pilchard, Bernard Martin, and William Livingston.

BANG 4

Tuesday, April 25, 1967 to Sunday April, 30, 1967

; PLACE: Richmond, Virginia, U.S.A.

BANG 4: 1967, Arts Festival, Richmond Professional Institute, RPI, now called VCU, Richmond, Virginia, USA

Began: Tuesday, April 25,1967; also on Wednesday April 26, Thursday, April 27, Friday, April 28, and Saturday the 29th, and Sunday April, 30, 1967.

Notes taken from PROSCRIPT newspaper, Vol. 47, No. 25:

Richmond Professional Institute, Editor-in-Chief Randolph V. Goode, Co-News Editors: Larry Ross Evans and Nancy Thomas, Joan Wrather, Features Editor Ken Heite, Sports Editor Horton P. Beirne, Photo Editor John Ailor). Thomas Robbins, Was editor of Proscript, the Richmond Professional Institute's (RPI) student newspaper,. Wrote a column called Walks on the Wild Side & The Robbins Nest,1961 Graduated Richmond Professional Institute: Thomas Eugene Robbins, b. Blowing Rock, N.C., 1936, is widely read by high school and college students. After attending several colleges, Robbins worked as a copy editor for three newspapers--the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the Seattle Times (where he was also art critic), and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. His first novel, Another Roadside Attraction (1971), was followed by Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (1976), probably his most highly regarded work, Still Life with Woodpecker (1980), Jitterbug Perfume (1984), and Skinny Legs and All (1990).."end quote. (I saw the bio day ago with the woodpecker background, which has since been removed, or by Feb. 1, 2006 it is gone from the web. CLS.)

Headline: 'Strange happening hits her- be-in begins Bang 4 on Shafer Court', Page 1. No author of article given. Staff Photo by Randolph V. Goode: Caption of photo: "Steve Collins, Dolly Brasell Give'a Hippie View'- The Be-in Tueday Caused Quite a Stire on Campus."

Tuesday, April 25, 1967- "a be-in on Shafer Court"in the afternoon, and a panel discussion that night on the 'happenings on the New York scene," will continue through this weekend with gospel and blue grass music, electronic sounds and a dramtic productions concerning the "human commitment." [Panel members: Howard Smith, columnist for the Village Voice (newspaper) accompainied by his wife (Not named) and Jeff Click, owner of the Head Shop, along with Jean Mercier, manager of the Parafanalia Shop, discussed a varitety of things going on in New York."" Predominant in the question and answer session going on between the four guests and the audience were the topics of clothing styles, generation labels and sex."]

Wednesday April 26,, 1967- Art films were shown at the Gaslight Theatre. "The films began with a kaleidoscope of entitled "Lapis" and closed with "A Sunday Afternoon in Boston" which was subtitled "An Early Start To The New Direction." The films contained little dialogue and were completely devoid of nudism." end quote.

Friday, April 28, 1967- Virginia Choral Ensemble, George Winn and The Blue Grass partners, at the Gaslight Threatre.

Saturday, April 29, 1967- "Frogs" will make its American premier . Electronic musical composition by Robert Ashley. Gordon Mumma, Alvin Lucir and David Berham, "nationally known musicians, will also provide music."

"Also appearing in the festival will be the Twyla Tharp dance group."

Headline: 'Be-in opens Arts Festival; more weird things ahead' No author of article given.

Sunday, April 30, 1967, Quote: Wednesday April 26,, "Firraggo" a studen dramtic performance directed by Daria Sue D>skins, A&Sc4 Virginia beach. The piece is said to portray the "human commitment." Alternate spelling of "Figarro" appeared published in Poscript - Friday, March 31, 1967.

ARTICLE: Poscript - Friday, March 31, 1967, titled, "Columnist To Appear In Bang 4"

Quote:

"Tickets for the Spring Arts Festival Bang 4 went on sale inthe Rotunda this week with student tickets costing seven dollars for the entire week's entertainment.

According to Dr. Herbert Burgart, dean of the School of Art, a limited number of tickets will be available for individual performances when the festival takes place during the last week of April.

A columnist for The Village Voice, an avant-garde newspaper eminationg from Greenwich Village, is the lastest addition to the list of entertainers that will appear in the festival. Howard Smith, the author of "The Scenes" colunm for the newspaper, will combine his writing talents with 48 cameras and 48 tape recorders in presenting "Be in the New York Scene."

Four theatrical and musical compositions will be presented during the week by Robert Ashely, Gordon Mumma, Alvin Lucir and David Berham, Also appearing in the festival will be the Twyla Tharp dance group, the Virginia Choral Ensemble, George Winn and His Blue Grass Partnes, and a student group presenting "Figarro." END QUOTE.

PLEASE CONTACT ME IF YOU HAVE ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON BANG 4; 1966

LINKS:

Gordon Mumma

Gordon Mumma GORDON MUMMA (born 1935 March 30, Framingham, Massachusetts) lived in Ann Arbor, Michigan from 1953 to 1966, where he was co-founder...

| www.lovely.com/bios/mumma.html

quote:"GORDON MUMMA (born 1935 March 30, Framingham, Massachusetts) lived in Ann Arbor, Michigan from 1953 to 1966, where he was co-founder of the Cooperative Studio for Electronic Music, perhaps the first electronic music facility in the United States, and the now-historic ONCE Festivals of Contemporary Music. From 1966 to 1974 he was, with John Cage and David Tudor, one of the three composer-musicians with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, for which he composed four commissioned works.""Since 2004 he has been a Canadian resident, and associated with the University of Victoria, British Columbia."

His own site:

Mumma, Gordon

brainwashed.com/mumma/

includes: photos:

Gordon Mumma and Robert Ashley, at Ashley's section of the Coopertive Studio for Electronic Music.

Ann Arbor, MI, circa 1960.

BANG Arts Festivals, Richmond Professional Institute, RPI, now called VCU, Richmond, Virginia, USA

LINK: http://www.carolsutton.net/text/bang_arts_festivals_rpi.html

BANG 1: 1963, Arts Festival, Richmond Professional Institute, RPI, now called VCU, Richmond, Virginia, USA

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BANG Arts Festivals, Richmond Professional Institute, RPI, now called VCU, Richmond, Virginia, USA