Environment art

Environment art (or Environmental art). An art form in which the artist creates a three-dimensional space in which the spectator can be completely enclosed and involved in a multiplicity of sensory stimulations—visual, auditory, kinetic, tactile, and sometimes olfactory. This type of art was prefigured in the Merzbau of Kurt Schwitters and in the elaborate decor of some of the Surrealist exhibitions of the 1930s, as well as in certain types of entertainments at funfairs, but as a movement it originated in the late 1950s and flourished chiefly in the 1960s, when it was closely connected with happenings. The leading figures who have worked in Environment art include Kaprow, Kienholz and, Oldenburg, and one of the most celebrated works in the genre was created by Niki de Saint Phalle. The term has been loosely used, and confusingly it has sometimes been applied to Land art or its analogues—that is, to type of art that manipulates the natural environment, rather than creating an environment to enfold and absorb the spectator.