Celebrating Carolyn Brown’s Contributions to the Walker
Celebrated American dancer Carolyn Brown (1927–2025) has left an incredible legacy with the Walker, not only through the two Rauschenberg works recently gifted from her estate — White Walk (1970) and New Painting (1962) — but also through her long history of contributing to the Walker’s programs.
Carolyn Brown was a dancer, teacher, writer, choreographer, filmmaker, and a founding member of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company (MCDC), which gave its first performances at Black Mountain College’s seminal Summer Institute of the Arts in 1953. With the MCDC, Brown originated roles in more than 40 Cunningham works and helped define the ensemble’s groundbreaking modernist aesthetic. She also performed in works by many other artists, most notably Robert Rauschenberg’s Pelican (1963) and John Cage’s Theatre Piece (1960), considered the first happening — orchestrated by Cage but a collective creation. Often lauded for her exquisite technique and gracefulness on stage, Brown grew up dancing with her mother, Marion Rice, in the pioneering, proto-modern Denishawn technique, and was also steeped in the Cecchetti ballet method as taught by two British luminaries, Antony Tudor and Margaret Craske, whom she met while attending Juilliard.
After leaving MCDC in 1972, Brown would go on to coach dancers in the company and to serve on the board of the Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation. Brown felt her greatest achievement was her memoir, Chance and Circumstance: Twenty Years with Cage and Cunningham (2007), an invaluable chronicle of MCDC’s formative years, as well as the artistic circumstances from which it sprang. From 1980 to 1982, she was dean of the dance department at Purchase College, and subsequently she was a crucial teacher for a younger generation of dancers, including the singular Sara Rudner. Brown choreographed and collaborated with noteworthy artists, including her longtime artistic and life partner James Klosty. She made the site-specific dance film Dune Dance and had two collaborations with the electronic musician Maggi Payne.
During Brown’s years in MCDC, she visited the Walker three times for extensive residencies the Walker hosted with the company, in 1967, 1969, and 1972. The residency in 1967 featured Brown and Cunningham and included a lecture at the Tyrone Guthrie Theatre and a series of master classes on technique and composition for over 55 students as young as 14 from around the Twin Cities. Brown later wrote to the Walker’s Performing Arts coordinator, John Ludwig, sharing how much she enjoyed the visit: “It’s still a delicious shock to discover one’s needs have been anticipated and looked after with such skill! Many, many thanks — I enjoyed the two weeks in Minneapolis far more than I expected. I feel we succeeded, at least, in heightening both the pleasure and the interest in dance for a number of people. And this was very rewarding for me.” In subsequent residencies, Brown traveled with the entire company to perform around the state, teach at local dance centers and at Minneapolis Public Schools, and present at the Walker. On March 12, 1972, Brown performed Event #32 with MCDC in the galleries for the exhibition Bill Brandt: Photographs at the Walker Art Center.
Radford Bascome, Carolyn Brown and Merce Cunningham in Suite for Five, 1956
After MCDC disbanded in 2011 following the 2009 death of Cunningham, the Walker acquired its archive of some 4,300 costumes, décor, posters, photographs, and sketches representing 150 of the visionary choreographer’s choreographic works. In 2011, Brown graciously sat for an interview with Abigail Sebaly, the Walker’s Cunningham research fellow, to help bring life to the works and provide context for the many objects now in the Walker’s collection. In her interview, Brown mentioned how Robert Rauschenberg, who served as the company’s resident designer until 1964, expanded the company’s access to many new venues. She remarked on his unbelievable imagination and extraordinary creativity. Brown became good friends with Rauschenberg, and the two remained close throughout their lives. She owned several Rauschenberg works, gifting some during her lifetime to other institutions. In a December 22, 1987, note to Rauschenberg, Brown wrote, “New Painting will never be sold,” underlining her fondness of that particular work.
The Walker is honored to have been gifted both Robert Rauschenberg works, New Painting and White Walk, by the estate of Carolyn Brown. The works went directly from Rauschenberg to Brown and remained in her collection until her death on January 7, 2025. The Walker’s collection includes over 150 works by Rauschenberg spanning painting, prints, and sculpture; the Brown estate’s gifts will meaningfully enhance several other works by the artist in the Walker’s holdings.
New Painting (1962) represents an important transitional moment in Rauschenberg’s career, marking his early experiments with the silkscreen process that would define much of his artistic production throughout the 1960s. White Walk (1970) is part of the artist’s Stoned Moon series, a suite of 34 lithographs created in collaboration with NASA and Gemini G.E.L. in Los Angeles following the Apollo 11 lunar landing in 1969. Invited by NASA to witness the launch at Cape Canaveral, Rauschenberg responded with a body of work that merged technology, mass media imagery, and painterly sensibility, situating space exploration within the broader cultural landscape of the late 1960s.
Donating works of art to the Walker’s collection is not only one way to make a meaningful planned gift; it will also assure the continued appreciation and care of beloved works in your collection. Gifts undergo rigorous review to determine whether they are appropriate additions to the collection. If you are considering donating a work of art to the Walker, please contact us first with details about your proposed gift.
To learn more about the various ways to include the Walker in your estate plans, visit walkerart.org/legacycircle. If you have included the Walker in your estate plans, or would like more information on setting up your gift, contact Michelle Poss at 612.375.5838.
Special thanks to Claudia La Rocco for providing insight and additional background on Carolyn Brown.
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