Goldberg, Living Art c. 1933 to the 1970's 

      My interest in Goldberg’s chapter six is the time period of pre-WW2, to thirty years post-WW2 in the evolution of the performing arts. Metaphorically speaking, I vision the war as a burned field with dead trees, rubble, ash, and torn lives. Lives to which some became determined to seek seemingly infinite possibilities with the use of body, and spirit, emphasizing free expression for humanity awareness and identity through the arts.

     Seeds were planted in “1933” through “Black Mountain College” (p. 123) with the Dada influence of chance, both Cage’s “non-intentional music” and Cunningham’s “natural movement” of dance. The (ash) of the war time become fertilizer producing new buds of life, such as “the New School for Social Research” in “1956” (p. 127), Kaprow’s “18 Happenings” influence (p. 130), and Rauschenberg’s “1961” emphasis of “element of place” in “1963”(p. 136).

     Although Goldberg points out “Futurist and Dada” was authoritatively “the most familiar” in the 1950’s in performance, the 1960’s experienced “unusual choreographic ideas” through the “Judson Dance Group” among others, (p. 139) and Carolee Schneemann’s body art expressed through the (rubble) of inequalities that still existed. However, “Minimalist” such as “Morris” who “manipulated”  “objects” through “body in motion”, which I assume Morris was inviting the viewer to look within one’s mind to “specific problems”, (p. 142) which I feel was most strongly accomplished through performers in Europe during this time.

     Europe was the front line of the war, and perhaps only one’s imagination could look beyond the (burned field) and bring hope for the future. I believe it was Klein’s intention to get his viewers to use their imagination to create this future. Goldberg explains Klein’s quest for a “’spiritual’ pictorial space”, and eventually “Monochrome painting” led him to live performances of “empty space”, the “invisible”, leaving the tangible material world in void. (p. 144) Even Klein’s performance use of the body with “living brushes”, he had no physical contact with the material world in the art, and further emphasized to the viewers the possibilities available through imagination for an “immediate experience” as he had. (p. 145) Manzoni “eliminated the canvas” with “Living Sculpture” and “balloons filled with air” to which would expire eventually, eliminating the material representation of his art. (p. 149) Beuys’s “attempt to change human consciousness” through “’social sculpture’” once again eliminated the tangible. (p. 149-151) These “three artist”… “intended to capture the ‘spirit’ of the artist”, which I presume invited the viewers consciousness into the art, and on the stage, as a self-created form. (p. 144)      

     It appears to me the war fertilized some creative minds of the performing artist, through correlation, with body and spirit, to bring awareness to the viewers their surroundings and unique identities, individually, and world cultures.