Time, space, the artist 's body and the relationship between performer and audience, these are the key elements that defines the term —Performance art. The art of live action performances arose in the 1960s as artists continued to break the traditional boundaries of different medium, built on the utopian ideas of the avant-garde that could be traced back to the Futurists' performances and the Dada's cabarets. For centuries, people have performed through the forms of ritual, theater, dances and so on, but the artists who experienced the tragic events of World War II, they believed that the human body as a medium is able to communicate strong emotions, stating that every body is a "self" inscribed by the identity and background of the person which in turn is able to put off the idea of universal perspective.
Performance art further developed post World War II in the United States. Black Mountain College in North Carolina became the center of experimental practices with composer John Cage teaching classes as well as organizing collaborative events with artists such as Robert Rauschenberg, choreographer Merce Cunningham and the poet Charles Olson. According to art critics, Abstract Expressionism, especially action painting set the stage for the emergence of the Fluxus movement and Happenings. The pioneers of the movements, Allan Kaprow, Yoko Ono and George Brecht were highly influenced by both the teachings of John Cage as well as the spontaneity and performative aspect of Abstract Expressionism
" We abolish the stage and the auditorium and replace them by a single site, without partition or barrier of any kind, which will become the theater of the action. " — Antonin Artaud, The Theater and Its Double -1938
Gutai Group ( 具体美術協会 )
Founded by Jiro Yoshihara ( 吉原 治良 ) in 1954, the Japanese artistic movement, Gutai Bijutsu Kyoukai was considered one of the most important movement of post war Japanese culture which involves performances and conceptual art while embracing the ideas that "every work of art begins from nothing" and how inner beauty is born from destructive processes. Unlike other performative movements, the Gutai Group did not completely abandoned painting, they instead created a term "e" ( 絵 ) which literally means picture to loosely explain their experimental art forms that rejected the conventional arts.The movement later dissolved following Yoshihara's sudden death, however the legacy of the Gutai group continued through the relentless efforts of former members and similar to how they were inspired my Jackson Pollock, they too had made an impact on the art world.
Performance art is often presented in ways that provoke the audiences and causes feelings of discomfort, prompting viewers to question the definition of art to the point where people were asking what is not a performance. In terms of concepts and styles, performance artists presented in various forms which was hard to categorize, such as actions, rituals, happenings, body art and endurance. However, many artists refused to be categorized under any style, embracing their own unique individuality as many experimented with overlapping styles, fusing body and performance into art. Many performance art pieces such as Allan Kaprow's Happenings : Fluids, Yard and Household could be and have been reenacted. Although some may argue that no two would ever be exactly the same, but they were able to present the values of Kaprow to other generations of audience, engaging the them as participants while simultaneously experiencing the event.
How to Make a Happening, 1966, Allan Kaprow
From the Cabaret Voltaire of the Dadaist, Yves Klien's Anthropometries (1958), Ben Patterson's Variation for Double-Bass (1962), Alison Knowles's Make a Salad (1962) to Nam June Paiks' Zen for Head (1962), many performance arts are playful in intent and form, however, for some artists, it was a platform for presenting serious social causes, displaying the message to the audience in a disturbing yet entertaining manner. Joseph Beuys, one of the most influential yet controversial artist of the 20th century. Using himself as a tool, Beuys decided to change the world by intertwining his life and art. In his most renowned performance piece: I Like America and America likes me, Beuys believe he was helping to heal America's economic and racial wounds by bonding with a wild coyote which is an important symbol of native American mythology.
Performance Art Movement in 1960s
Performance art was politically agitated in the 1960s during the height of the second wave Feminism as well as The Civil Rights Movements. Many artists addressed emerging social issues in the form of art, using the body to make political statements, reclaiming and reasserting the identities of women and challenging the historical representation by male artists. VALIE EXPORT invited the public to touch her naked body in her performance, TAPP und TASTKINO ( TOUCH and TAP Cinema ) whereas Carolee Schneemann's Interior Scroll (1975) both using the female body as a medium to counter the male dominated society or more specifically the male dominated art industry. The groundbreaking artworks of these female artist at the time gave females a new form of expression, a voice to raise questions and explore the issues of gender, race sexual orientations.
Today, performance art have been accepted into mainstream art and many artists continue to employ different mediums and ideas, even technologies into performance art. Marina Abramovic have become the icon of performance art in the 21st century with her most prominent performance piece, The Artist Is Present where she simply sat still and gaze at whoever sat across from her, which pop artist Jay-Z was inspired by and later incorporated it into his music video — Picasso Baby, Shia LaBeouf's #IAM SORRY was similar, allowing visitors to interact freely with him while he had a bag over his head with the words “I am not famous any more”. both spread the concept of performance art to a wider audience at the same time showing how performance art has integrated into pop culture. Born to confront the hierarchies in conventional art forms so that artists and audience could have direct contact, performance art was often used to express social dissent humourously or more commonly in a disturbing manner, however that is how it is supposed to be, making the viewers uncomfortable yet allowing them to contemplate about their own experiences and emotions through the art of interaction.
References
Beave, K. ( 2012, May 30 ). Performance Art 101: The Happening, Allan Kaprow. Retrieved from https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/h/happening/happening
Butler, A, M. ( 2017 ). Performance Art Movement Overview and Analysis. Retrieved from https://www.
Eisinger, D. ( 2013, April 9 ). The 25 Best Performance Art Pieces of All Time. Retrieved from https://www.complex.com/style/2013/04/the-25-best-performance-art-pieces-of-all-time/
Esaak, S. ( 2017, June 11 ). Performance Art. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/performance-art-history-basics-182390
nationalgalleries. ( 2012, August 12 ). Who is Joseph Beuys?. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.co
Spivey, V, B, ( n.d. ). Performance Art: An Introduction. Retrieved from https://www.khanacademy.org/
Tate. ( 2017, September 22 ). An Introduction to Performance Art | TateShots. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Z-YZ3A4mdk
The Art Assignment. ( 2016, September 8 ). The Case for Performance Art | The Art Assignment | PBS Digital Studios. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmMTKdUAokM
The Art Story Contributors. ( 2017 ). Gutai Group Movement Overview and Analysis. Retrieved from https://www.theartstory.org/movement/gutai/
Wainwright, L, S. ( n.d. ). Performance art Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/art/
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