Signed program cover from the Martha Graham Dance Company's 1975 Americana Evening, on which Copland conducted his Fanfare for the Common Man and Appalachian Spring. Both artists have signed above the iconic image of Graham in Letter to the World, which was also performed. Framed together with a photograph of Graham and Copland on stage at the Mark Hellinger Theatre. Some spotting and wrinkles, but very good. Program sheet measures 9 x 12 inches (23 x 30.5 cm) and the internal full program pages are included in a pouch affixed to frame verso. Uncommon. It is surprisingly rare to find examples together of the signatures of these two deeply intertwined American artists.
"The present image of Martha Graham in her 1940 ballet, ‘Letter to the World,’ is among Barbara Morgan’s finest images and arguably the most famous dance photograph of the twentieth century. The premiere of Graham’s important ‘Letter to the World’ took place on 11 August 1940, at the Bennington College Theater in Vermont. Martha Graham, Erick Hawkins, Merce Cunningham, and Jane Dudley were the original performers. The ballet was accompanied by the spoken poetry of Emily Dickinson; the title of the ballet is taken from a Dickinson poem which begins, ‘This is my letter to the World/ That never wrote to Me. . . .’
The present image was not made at a performance of the live ballet; rather, the photograph was taken in one of the studio spaces used by Morgan in New York City. It was Morgan’s custom to attend repeated rehearsals and performances of the dances she planned to photograph, and watch for significant moments that she would later re-create in a studio setting. In collaboration with the dancers, most especially Graham herself, Morgan would discuss the choreography, music, and philosophy behind each ballet, then focus on a small group of movements that would represent the essence of the work as a whole. Morgan called these selected moments of action ‘”instants of combustion’” (quoted in Aperture, Barbara Morgan, p. 7).
The legacy of Martha Graham in dance of the twentieth century is without parallel. Even those who have never seen a Graham ballet, however, are familiar with her work through Morgan’s photograph. In its perfection of lighting, its deft capture of the floating costume, and its evocation of Graham’s arrested, fluid motion, the photograph has become synonymous with not only ‘Letter to the World,’ but also with the world of modern dance." (Sotheby's "Photographs from the Collection of Joseph and Laverne Schieszler," Lot 1)
Signed program cover from the Martha Graham Dance Company's 1975 Americana Evening, on which Copland conducted his Fanfare for the Common Man and Appalachian Spring. Both artists have signed above the iconic image of Graham in Letter to the World, which was also performed. Framed together with a photograph of Graham and Copland on stage at the Mark Hellinger Theatre. Some spotting and wrinkles, but very good. Program sheet measures 9 x 12 inches (23 x 30.5 cm) and the internal full program pages are included in a pouch affixed to frame verso. Uncommon. It is surprisingly rare to find examples together of the signatures of these two deeply intertwined American artists.
"The present image of Martha Graham in her 1940 ballet, ‘Letter to the World,’ is among Barbara Morgan’s finest images and arguably the most famous dance photograph of the twentieth century. The premiere of Graham’s important ‘Letter to the World’ took place on 11 August 1940, at the Bennington College Theater in Vermont. Martha Graham, Erick Hawkins, Merce Cunningham, and Jane Dudley were the original performers. The ballet was accompanied by the spoken poetry of Emily Dickinson; the title of the ballet is taken from a Dickinson poem which begins, ‘This is my letter to the World/ That never wrote to Me. . . .’
The present image was not made at a performance of the live ballet; rather, the photograph was taken in one of the studio spaces used by Morgan in New York City. It was Morgan’s custom to attend repeated rehearsals and performances of the dances she planned to photograph, and watch for significant moments that she would later re-create in a studio setting. In collaboration with the dancers, most especially Graham herself, Morgan would discuss the choreography, music, and philosophy behind each ballet, then focus on a small group of movements that would represent the essence of the work as a whole. Morgan called these selected moments of action ‘”instants of combustion’” (quoted in Aperture, Barbara Morgan, p. 7).
The legacy of Martha Graham in dance of the twentieth century is without parallel. Even those who have never seen a Graham ballet, however, are familiar with her work through Morgan’s photograph. In its perfection of lighting, its deft capture of the floating costume, and its evocation of Graham’s arrested, fluid motion, the photograph has become synonymous with not only ‘Letter to the World,’ but also with the world of modern dance." (Sotheby's "Photographs from the Collection of Joseph and Laverne Schieszler," Lot 1)