welcome One fine showWhere the Observer highlights an exhibition recently opened at a museum not in New York City, a place we know and love that has already received a lot of attention.
As the movie “Chainsaw Man” does trance One about Bruce Springsteen At the box office, it’s clear that the influence of baby boomers is waning. However, they have one last great work of cinematic relevance to thrust upon us: Sam Mendes‘ will feature a four-part Beatles biopic, featuring one film for each member Paul Mescal as Paul McCartney, Harris Dickinson as John Lennon, Joseph Quinn as George Harrison And Barry Keoghan as Ringo star. Casting is a relief for the younger generation, but there’s little for millennials. I refuse to watch a Ringo movie unless the third act is entirely about behind-the-scenes drama Thomas the Tank Engine.
Not that it’s a terrible idea on the face of it: people love to see how great talents develop on their own and then come together to become greater than the sum of their parts. Similar inspiration “Five friends: John Cage, Marc Cunningham, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Cy Twombly,” a new exhibition at the Museum Ludwig that is the first to examine these artists in relation to one another. The show includes more than 180 works—paintings, drawings, scores, stage designs, costumes, photographs, and films—and situates their collaboration within the larger political and cultural climate of 1950s Europe.
Anything was possible in this era, including these people who were more than friends. At times their story feels like a biopic: Rauschenberg and Twombly became romantically involved in early 1951, met at Black Mountain College, and would meet Cunningham and Cage in New York the following year. Cross-pollination was inevitable. Rauschenberg and Twombly worked on his first white painting The year they got together. As these were homages to openness, they certainly inspired Cage’s silent songs 4’33” (1952).
Johns had a studio near Rauschenberg and Twombly. His relationship with Rauschenberg would become one of the most significant in art history. I always have a soft spot for him Painted Bronze (Ale Can) (1960), inspired by an observation that pairs of Leo Caselli “Anything can sell—even a pair of beer cans.” But in the context of this show, you clearly feel Rauschenberg’s influence. His assembled and found sculptures are full of little quirks, much like the beers, one open and the other closed.
The movement between Cunningham’s dancers and Twombly’s brushes feels powerful in this context as well, and you might not realize how many costumes Rauschenberg designed for Cunningham. Among the best was the parachute dress he made Antique meat (1958). It manages to poof without hindering agility and still displays many human forms. Interspersed in all of this is the camaraderie mentioned in the show’s title. If you look at these letters, it seems that Cage only communicated with his friends through mesostic poetry. The Fab Five showed that when you have a good circle, art and life are inseparable.
“Five Friends: John Cage, Mars Cunningham, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Cy TwomblyOn view at the Museum Ludwig until January 11, 2026.
Review more exhibits
