While serving as the musical director of Anna Halprin’s summer workshop in 1960, the composer La Monte Young presented his whimsical event scores: texts that instruct performers to build on simple actions and reframe them as art. For example, in Composition 1960 #2 performers are asked to build a fire, and in [Composition 1960 #5] (https://www.moma.org/collection/works/127627?artistid=6520&locale=en&page=1&sovreferrer=artist) they are told to turn butterflies loose. Young opened his compositions to interpretation and variation, inviting other artists to perform them. Scores based on simple instructions would prove important to Simone Forti and other performancemakers living in downtown New York City, where Young would move in the fall of 1960.

Gallery label from

Judson Dance Theater: The Work Is Never Done, 2018

Medium Woodcut with watercolor additions
Dimensions composition: 6 1/2 x 7 7/8" (16.5 x 20 cm); sheet: 6 5/8 x 7 15/16" (16.8 x 20.2 cm)
Credit Larry Aldrich Fund
Object number 2833.2008
Department Drawings and Prints

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