Julian Beck Fotografie dall'archivio del Living Theatre

dimensioni variabili/dimensions variable

This group of photographs in the MAXXI collection provides a series of documents with which it is possible to retrace the theatrical experimentation of Living Theatre from post-WWII to the present day. The first images show Julian Beck and Judith Malina in New York in 1947. Beck was a young Expressionist painter, linked to the Gallery of Peggy Guggenheim, while Malina was finishing her dramatic preparation with the German director Erwin Piscator. The first "Theatre in the Room" experiments were done in 1951; later the couple founded "The Living Theatre" (1959), a space where the theatrical company often hosted poetry readings, concerts and the first New York happenings. The political climate of the successive years and the transfer to Europe in 1964 led Beck and Malina to renounce the distinction of roles and to experiment with new forms of collective creativity. The stage photographs and the snapshots of daily life and work, make it possible to follow the evolution of the group, which would overcome the limits of traditional scenic action.

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J. Beck, Theandric, Rome 1994. L. Mango, G. Morra (eds.), Living Theatre, labirinti dell’immaginario, exhibition catalogue (Naples, Castel Sant’Elmo), Naples 2003.

Foto Living Theatre Archive

Purchased from Living Theatre

Photography