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Performance art

A Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Art

Performance art. An art form combining elements of theatre, music, and the visual arts. It is related to the Happening (the two terms are sometimes used synonymously), but Performance art is usually more carefully programmed and generally does not involve audience participation.

The tradition of Performance art can be traced back to the Futurists, Dadaists, and Surrealists, who often staged humorous or provocative events to promote their work or ideas, then through such activities as Georges Mathieu painting in front of an audience in the 1950s and Yves Klein directing nude models smeared with paint in the early 1960s. However, it was only in the later 1960s and particularly in the 1970s that Performance art became recognized as a category of art in itself (the first quotation cited under the term in the Oxford English Dictionary dates from 1971). ‘At that time [the 1970s]', RoseLee Goldberg writes, ‘Conceptual art was in its heyday and performance was often a demonstration, or an execution, of [its] ideas … Art spaces devoted to performance sprang up in the major international art centres, museums sponsored festivals, art colleges introduced performance courses, and specialist magazines appeared’ (Performance Art: From Futurism to the Present, 1988).

The form and tone of Performances have varied enormously. The Vienna Actionists, for example, cultivated sadomasochism and scatology (the abuse of the performer's body is something that often occurs also in Body art, with which Performance art sometimes overlaps). The British Performance artist Stuart Brisley is another whose work has often focused on self-inflicted discomfort and humiliation, but in Britain the field has more often been characterized by whimsicality (in the 1970s there was a fad for Performance groups with quaint names such as John Bull Puncture Repair Kit and for wacky newsworthy stunts; in 1975, for example, the three-man Ddart Performance Group walked around East Anglia in a 150–mile circle with a pole attached to the members' heads).

Performance art has also been used as an adjunct to rock music ( Laurie Anderson is the most noted exponent) and as a vehicle for political dissent, as well as for the exploration of private fantasies. Among the artists in whose work it has played a large role are Joseph Beuys, Gilbert & George, and Bruce Nauman.

The British painter Giles Auty (1934– ), a strong critic of the world of contemporary art, writes: ‘My own feelings about so-called Performance Art are that it is often too lacking in art, skill, relevance or sense … The best performance artists I have yet seen were the Leicester Square buskers of the 'fifties’ (The Art of Self Deception, 1977).

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© A Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Art 1999, originally published by Oxford University Press 1999.

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