Abstract
“Modern Art and Modern Movement: Images of Dance in American Art, c. 1900-1950,” examines works from the period that heralded the birth of modern dance. While modern dancers and choreographers experimented with new ways to move the body, American visual artists explored the new formal and stylistic possibilities of the modern movements, many of which originated in Europe. I consider the intersections and interrelations of these two major artistic developments as I discuss paintings, sculptures, photographs, and drawings that engage with the developing art forms of modern art and modern dance.
Dance historians have long recognized the influence of the visual arts on the development of dance. However, scholarship that works in reverse, considering the impact of these dancers on the field of the visual arts, especially American art, is much rarer. Rather than view these images of dance solely as records of the dancers’ costumes or dance steps, this dissertation seeks to broaden the lens through which artistic depictions of dance are generally understood by examining and evaluating both the aesthetic qualities and the historical significance of the works.
During the first half of the twentieth century, numerous American artists created images of dancers in a wide array of media and styles. Modern dance appealed to them for a variety of reasons. For some the dancer represented modernity, while for others he or she brought the exotic past to life. Some artists associated dance with European tradition, while others saw in modern dance a declaration of the American spirit. All of these artists felt inspired by the way the modern dancers moved. I propose that the new dance forms of the twentieth century contributed to the aesthetic development of many modern American artists by allowing them to envision, and thus portray, the human body in new ways.