set Carlos Dyer

Erick Hawkins as Free-Stater Kansas in Liberty Tree (1941)                                                          photo Barbara Morgan   

Carlos Dyer (born 1917) was a famous self taught painter/lithographer Californian WPA artist. He worked as a curator at MoMA during the 50's and played an important role at Connecticut's Silvermine Guild. Dyer also made sets for Hawkins' Liberty Tree (1941) and Primer for Action (1942).

1942 Yankee Bluebritches / composer Hunter Johnson

Erick Hawkins in Yankee Bluebritches                               photo Barbara Morgan

Charlotte Trowbridge (life dates unknown) created the set for Hawkins' Yankee Bluebritches (1942) and later the costume for Merce Cunningham's Ancestor (1945). She worked at MoMA in 1946 as an installer and presented as an artist in the exhibition World of Illusion: Elements of Stage Design  October 14,1947-January 4, 1948 which included Fernand Léger, Georges Braques, Isamu Noguchi, and George Amberg.

geometrical drawing by Philip Stapp

Philip Stapp (1908-2003) was known as a painter, furniture maker, teacher, and animator for film. His work was exhibited in the 1947 Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting at the Whitney Museum from December 6, 1947- January 25, 1948. He worked at Bennington College in the 1940's where he designed the set for Martha Graham's Every Soul is a Circus (1939) and Hawkins' The Pilgrim's Progress (1944). 

 "jungle gym" of Isamu Noguchi's set for Stephen Acrobat 

 Ericik Hawkins as John Brown                                                                                                  photo Michael Avedon

Isamu Noguchi (1904–1988) was one of the twentieth century's most important and critically acclaimed sculptors. Through a lifetime of artistic experimentation, he created sculptures, gardens, furniture and lighting designs, ceramics, architecture, and set designs. Noguchi made the set for Hawkins' John Brown (1947) revived as God's Angry Man (1964 and 1985 ) and Stephen Acrobat (1947).

1948 The Strangler / composer Bohuslav Martinu

Arch Lauterer designed sets for several of Martha Graham's pieces, such asPanorama (1935) and Letter to the World (1940), both premiering at Bennington College. He taught at Bennington, Sarah Lawrence, Case Western Reserve, and Mills College. He assisted Isamu Noguchi for Hawkins' Stephen Acrobat (1947) and created the set for Hawkins' The Strangler (1948).

1952 openings of the (eye) / composer Lucia Dlugoszewski

      photos John Geraci

Ralph Dorazio was born in 1922 in Detroit, Michigan. In 1942 he enlisted in the Navy and served in WW II for 3 1/2 years. Returning to Detroit he embarked on what he thought would be a life in journalism but after 6 months he knew it was not for him. He moved to NYC in 1947 and began what was to be his life's work - sculpture in wood. His exploration in sculpture led him to work with Frederick Kiesler on his sculptures and architectural models. He was also a teacher at Pratt Institute and New York School of Wood Arts.  In 1952 he became the designer-in-residence of the Erick Hawkins Dance Company designing and making properties, sets, and masks of wood. This collaboration lasted until his death in 2004.

©The Easton Foundation / photo Robert L. Alexander

Louise Bourgeios was a French-American artist. Best known for her large-scale sculpture and installation art, Bourgeois was also a prolific painter and printmaker. Her work was exhibited in the 1947 Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting at the Whitney Museum December 6, 1947- January 25, 1948. Bourgeios created the set for Hawkin's Bridegroom of the Moon (1952).

photo Herbert Migdoll

Helen Frankenthaler (1928-2011) was a major contributor to the history of postwar American painting. She began exhibiting her large-scale abstract expressionist paintings in contemporary museums and galleries in the early 1950's. She was included in the 1964 Post-Painterly Abstraction exhibition curated by Clement Greenberg that introduced a newer generation of abstract painting that came to be know as Color Field. Frankenthaler created the set for Hawkins' Of Love (1970).

                                                                                                                                         photos Tony Cenicola

Ralph Lee is an American puppeteer and theatre artist. His work is centered on the design and use of masks in the theatre and performance. Masks and large puppets are central to his productions. He has been awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship for Creative Arts in the US and Canada, and an Obie Award for Special Citations.

© Dedalus Foundation, Inc. / licensed by VAGA, NY

Robert Motherwell was trained in philosophy and became an artist who was regarded as among the most articulate of the abstract expressionist painters. He was known for his series of abstract paintings and prints which touched on political, philosophical and literary themes such as the Elegies to the Spanish Republic.

virtual views by Jacob's Pillow / photo Christopher Duggan

   photo Julie Lemberger

Lucia Dlugoszewski, composer and percussionist / Beverly Brown, dancer/ set & musical instruments, Ralph Dorazio

photo William L. Stonecipher  

Long Comet Hair

photo Peter Papadopoulos

painting Robert Motherwell

EHDC celebrated Robert Motherwell's Centennial at the Dominique Lévy Gallery NYC on December 10, 2015 with a version of Dlugoszewski's Tender Theatre Flight Nagerie performed by Manhattan Brass and percussionist William Trigg for her choreography from Motherwell Amour (2000).                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

    photo Sydney Palmer

Stanley Boxer (1926-2000) was born in New York City, and began his formal education after World War II, when he left the Navy and studied at the Art Students League of New York. He drew, painted, made prints, and sculpted. Art critic Grace Glueck wrote "Never part of a movement or trend, though obviously steeped in the language of Modernism, the abstract painter Stanley Boxer was a superb manipulator of surfaces, intensely bonding texture and color." Boxer offered an explanation of his philosophy and working process: In the manufacture of my art, I use anything and everything which gets the job done without any sentiment or sancity as to medium. In 1953 Boxer had his first solo exhibition of paintings in New York City, and showed regularly thereafter until his death. His paintings and sculpture were represented in New York City during the late 1960s through 1974 by the Tibor de Nagy Gallery.

photo Eli Morgan

 Angels of the Inmost Heaven exists both as a work for concert performance and for the stage as choreographed by Erick Hawkins. "What strange risk of hearing can bring sound to music - a hearing whose obligation awakens s sensibility so new that it is forever a unique, new-born, anti-death surprise created now and now and now...a hearing whose moment in time is always daybreak." Lucia Dlugoszewski

The most noticeable aspect of Dlugoszewski's works is their sound quality. Her sensitivity to sound was already visible in her early compositions. In her scores, Dlugoszewski polished even the tiniest sound details. She could alter the type of articulation or dynamics every other meter, especially in parts for percussion. The composer layered instrumental plans of various dynamics, creating unique mixtures of sounds. This sort of changeability coupled with strong contrasts could lead to a fragmentation of the composition, but the pulsating character of the music ensured the experience of a continuum. Another characteristic feature of sounds used by Dlugoszewski is their instability. The composer particularly loved glissandi, trills, ricochets, short appoggiaturas, vibratos and multi phonics on wind instruments - and everything that blurs sounds makes them more ambiguous, simultaneously making them difficult to reproduce precisely.                                                                           

Krzysztof Stefański [Ruch Muzyczny] 

masks Ralph Lee

           photo Jen Schmidt

photo Tony Cenicola

photo Tony Cenicola

fillm Tony Cenicola

photo Julie Lemberger

openings of the (eye) (1952) was Lucia Dlugoszewski's first collaboration with Hawkins. #ENSEMBLE released a CD with all five sections as well as Dlugoszewski's music for Hawkins' Lords of Persia (1965). "There are rare times when two people are together when each one does an indescribable something for the other and yet no freedom is lost by either."   Erick Hawkins

“The young pianist, an excellent performer, is here dealing with a repertoire of contemporary music written between 1994 and 2020, ranging from the tribute to John Cage by the Chinese Tan Dun to the dedicated pieces (also for toy piano) by the American Philip Corner, although the surprise remains the initial concert in 4 parts by the Polish-American Lucia Dlugoszewski, an extraordinary artist and inventor of a timbre-piano in which hammers and keys are replaced with strings and plectra. 5/5: Unique.” Guido Michelone, Alias – Il Manifesto, April 17th, 2021