Ailey's World

"Edges of Ailey," at the Whitney Museum, captures something essential to Ailey's spirit

Jennifer Packer's "Not Yet Titled" and Lynette Yadom-Boakye's "Fly Trap," the first two paintings you encounter in the show

I found myself very moved by the Ailey show at the Whitney ("Edges of Ailey," through Feb. 9). The exhibit has a rare quality, a combination of vitality, color, and warmth. Its curators have created something that transcends the usual experience of walking through an exhibit dedicated to the work of a single artist. With taste and scope, they have selected and placed together paintings, sculptures, film, diary entries, choreographic notes, photographs, and collages that invite you to wander, find connections, or linger to admire an object that has a particular resonance. Taken together, the works evoke a whole world, and also, in some way, Ailey’s capacious spirit. The gallery space is filled with sound, movement, and vibrant color. You hear Ailey’s wonderful, deep voice; you hear spirituals. On a loop of video that runs the length of the space, you see the cottonfields and rivers of the Southern landscape Ailey grew up in. But also, of course, footage of Ailey’s dances, sometimes performed by Ailey himself. You become intensely aware of how these dances responded to themes in Ailey’s life, but also the life of the people he grew up with and loved: religion, hard work, women’s work, struggle, the art of the everyday, release, love. The art included in the show, by Elizabeth Catlett, Ralph Lemon, Horace Pippin, Clementine Hunter, Romare Bearden and others is equally full, vibrating with life. I particularly loved Lynette Yiadom-Boakye’s “A Knave Made Manifest,” a portrait of four black male dancers in rehearsal, one of whom is executing a beautiful retiré, while another corrects the position of a colleague’s foot. Here, the dancers’ toil is elevated to art, as it should be, while remaining grounded, real.

The images below:
1. Ailey by Carl Van Vechten 2. Jennifer Packer's "Not Yet Titled" and Lynette Yadom-Boakye's "Fly Trap," the first two paintings you encounter in the show 3.Notes for a dance inspired by Brazil 4. "School STudies" and "Cabin in the Cotton," by Horace Pippin. 5. "Migrants," by Samella Lewis 6. Ailey's mother, Lula Cooper. 7. "The Bayou," by Romare Bearden 8. Ralph Lemon's "Untitled (On BLack Music)" 9. Yiadom-Boakye’s “A Knave Made Manifest"

Elizabeth Catlett, from the “Negro Woman Series”

Ailey, notes for a dance inspired by Brazil

From Romare Bearden’s “Bayou Fever” series

Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, “A Knave Made Manifest”

Clementine Hunter, “Cane River Baptism”

Horace Pippin, “Knowledge of God”

Beauford Delaney, Marian Anderson

Horace Pippin, “School Studies” and “Cabin in the Cotton”

Ralph Lemon, “Untitled (On Black music)”