Five FriendsHow Art, Music, and Dance Rewrote the Rules of the 1950s
What happens when artists, dancers, and musicians challenge the boundaries of their disciplines—and of society itself?
The exhibition Five Friends at Museum Ludwig tells the story of John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, and Cy Twombly. Each played a central role in postwar art, but together their artistic friendships, collaborations, and reciprocal influences reshaped what art, music, and dance could be.
For the first time, Cage’s theoretical influence on Rauschenberg and Twombly, the stage sets by Rauschenberg and Johns for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, and the dialogues between Twombly, Rauschenberg, and Johns are explored in a major exhibition.
💡 Did you know?
Composer John Cage’s radical ideas about silence and chance directly inspired Rauschenberg’s “White Paintings” and nudged Cy Twombly toward his poetic abstractions. Their cross-pollination of music, painting, and performance continues to ripple through art today.
This isn’t just art history—it’s a reminder of how creative friendships can redefine culture itself.