Art Eras and Movements Notes for Finals Hums PDF

**Art Eras and Movements** **Paleolithic, Egyp, Greece, Rome to Modern and Contemprorary** Topics: Ancient Civilization of Mesopotamia and the Hebrews The Beginnings of Culture Paleolithic Cultures and Their Artifacts Myth in Prehistoric Cultural Life Religious and Political Influence on the A...

**Art Eras and Movements** **Paleolithic, Egyp, Greece, Rome to Modern and Contemprorary** Topics: Ancient Civilization of Mesopotamia and the Hebrews The Beginnings of Culture Paleolithic Cultures and Their Artifacts Myth in Prehistoric Cultural Life Religious and Political Influence on the Arts **Appropriation** **Performance Art** In December 1994, Jean-Marie Chauvet and two friends discovered a group of drawings in a large chamber in one of the caves along the Ardeche River gorge in Southern France. These drawings were comparable to those done by contemporary artists unlike the ones discovered earlier in the 27 similar caves found along the 17-miles of the Ardeche gorge. Previously discovered paintings appeared to modern man as childlike. This discoveries lead to speculations of other artworks that may have existed but *haven't survived because they were made of perishable materials like wood*. This further leads to speculations that art may have been made earlier than *30,000 years ago and perhaps man may have inhabited the Near East 90,000-100,000 years ago.* Culture encompasses the values and behaviors shared by a group of people and developed over time, and passed down from one generation to the next. The cave paintings discovered by Chauvet suggest that the Ardeche gorge may have been the center of culture of a group living in which the values of a community find expression. There were others like it. In northern Spain, the first decorated cave was discovered in *1879 at Altamira*. In Dordogne, southern France, west of Ardeche, schoolchildren discovered the Lascaux Cave in 1940 when their dog disappeared down a hole. In 1991, along the French Mediterranean coast, a diver discovered the entrance to the Cosquer Cave below the waterline near Marseille. Scholars are wondering why were these paintings done. Until recently scholars believe that these paintings were *associated with the hunt*. Perhaps during times of scarcity the hunters seeking game hope to conjure it up by drawing them on the cave walls. Perhaps the drawings were like magic charms intended to ensure a successful hunt. However, 60 percent of the animals depicted by the paintings on the walls at Chauvet were never or rarely hunted --there were lions, rhinoceros, bears, panthers, and mammoths. Paleolithic Era (Old Stone Age) People in the *paleolithic era lived on hunting and gathering wild plants*. There were small groups scattered and living a [nomadic life]. As the ice receded, agriculture replaced hunting and gathering and people started a more [sedentary way of life]. These is the beginning of the Neolithic Era (New Stone Age). During this period people began creating pottery which they used as containers or vessels for water and food. Civilization started in the great river valleys of Middle East and Asia. [Civilization refers to the social, economic, and political entity distinguished by the ability to express itself through images and written language.] Civilization develops when the environment of a region can support a large and productive population. When we say civilization started in the great river valleys of the Middle East and Asia, we are referring to specific regions where some of the earliest complex societies emerged, thanks to the availability of water, fertile soil, and conducive conditions for agriculture and settlement. In the Middle East, this specifically refers to: **Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq, parts of Syria, and Turkey)** - **Rivers:** Tigris and Euphrates - **Key Cities and Civilizations:** - **Sumerians** in cities like Uruk, Ur, and Eridu - **Akkadians**, **Babylonians**, and **Assyrians** - Mesopotamia is often called the \"Cradle of Civilization\" because it saw the development of writing (cuneiform), large urban centers, and complex governance systems. **Egypt (Northeast Africa, closely tied to the Middle East)** - **River:** Nile - **Key Developments:** - Ancient Egyptian civilization flourished along the fertile Nile Valley, leading to monumental architecture like pyramids and advancements in mathematics, medicine, and writing (hieroglyphs). These river valleys were crucial because they provided: - **Water** for irrigation and drinking. - **Floodplains** for fertile soil, replenished annually by flooding. - **Transportation routes** that facilitated trade and communication. - **Fish and other resources** for sustenance. In Asia, this concept extends to: - The **Indus River Valley** (modern-day Pakistan and northwest India) for the **Harappan Civilization**. - The **Yellow River Valley** (Huang He) in China for the early Chinese civilizations. Each of these regions contributed significantly to the foundations of modern civilization. One of the major ways that societies acquire the goods they want is by means of war. Evidence of civilizations dating back more than 25,000 years have survived in the form of cave paintings and small sculptures. Before the invention of writing these cultures created myths and legends that explained their origin and relation to the world. At Chauvet, colors suggest symbolic/sacred function. At the entrance red from ores rich in iron oxide while deeper in areas that are difficult to reach, black pigments from ores rich in manganese dioxide seem intentional. One of the few cave paintings depicting human figures is found at Lascaux in Dordogne southern France. With the discovery of the cave paintings it is observed that there is progression from awkward to more sophisticated representations which should not be attributed to lack of skill but rather to cultural influences. Paleolithic Cultures and its Artifacts Evidence of the existence of humans 5.7 million years ago was found in the forest of Ethiopia in 2001. Further excavations yield evidence that around 2.5 or 2.6 million years ago hominids or the earliest upright humans have already begun to make stone tools although long before, between 14 million to 19 million years ago, Kenyapithecus ("Kenyan Ape") made stone tools in east Central Africa. *A 2009 study of genetic diversity among Africans found the people of Zimbabwe to be the most diverse, that they are the most likely origin of modern humans* from which others gradually spread out of Africa across Asia, into Europe, and finally to Australia and the Americas. In the Paleolithic period, people began to carve stone tools and weapons to help them survive in their harsh environment. They have also carved small sculptural objects along with the "cave paintings". The most famous of the artifacts of female figures found in Europe is the limestone statuette woman found at Willendorf, Austria dating 25,000-20,000 BCE and sometimes called *[Venus of Willendorf]. Most of these sculptures are 4-5 inches high and fit neatly into a person's hand. The details include exaggerated breasts and bellies and their clearly delineated genitals associated with fertility and child-bearing. The presence of more female figurines than males suggests that women played a central role in Paleolithic culture.* Venus of Willendorf \| History, Facts & Significance - Lesson \... The Venus of Willendorf is an 11.1-centimetre-tall (4.4 in) Venus figurine estimated to have been made c. 30,000 years ago. It was recovered on 7 August 1908 from an archaeological dig conducted by Josef Szombathy, Hugo Obermaier, and Josef Bayer at a Paleolithic site near Willendorf, a village in Lower Austria. *Neolithic Pottery and Cultures* *The transition from hunting and fishing led to the use of pottery vessels which were used to carry water and store food. Popular decorative features from pottery in Iran depict the ibex which is a symbol of plenty.* *A kind of monumental stone architecture in what is now Britain and France are the megaliths or big stones. [Menhirs] or posts of upright stones stuck into the ground come from the Celtic words "men" and "hir" long. In Carnac, Brittany 3,000 menhirs arranged east to west in 13 straight rows called alignments are found in 2 miles stretch of plain. The stones stand about 3 feet tall at the east and gradually get larger until at the west they reach the height of 13 feet. Cromlech,* the best-known type of megalithic structure from the Celtic crom (wall) and lech (place) is known as the Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain 100 miles west of London. Why it was constructed remains a mystery. Another discovery at Durrington Walls 2 miles northeast of the Stonehenge itself suggests that the Stonehenge was a burial ground at the center of a village of 300 houses.  Mesopotamia: Power and Social Order in the Early Middle East In the winter of 1927, British Archaeologist C. Leonard Wooley, unearthed a series of tombs in the City of Ur. Many bodies and spectacular objects, vessels, crowns, necklaces, statues, weapons, jewelry, and lyres made of electrum and deep blue [lapiz lazuli] were found. A giant stele -- an upright stone slab carved with commemorative design or inscription-the so-called Law Code of Hammurabi was found in Babylon. Sumerian Literature survives on nearly 100,000 clay tablets and fragments containing religious themes in the form of poems, blessings, and incantations to the gods. A surviving manuscript, the Epic of Gilgamesh, preserves the historical lineage of all Mesopotamian kings-Sumerian, Akkadian, Assyrian, and Babylonian. What is cuneiform writing? - Quora **cuneiform writing**  **Sumerian Tablet** Hebrews (Habiris- outcast or nomad) are people who were forced out of their homeland in the Mesopotamian Basin in about 2800 BCE. In their tradition Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden in the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. It was there that Noah survived the great flood that Utrapishtim survived in the epic of Gilgamesh. It was there that Abraham led his people into Canaan to escape the Akkadians and the powerful Babylonians. Moses and the Ten Commandments In 1600 BCE the Hebrew people have to leave Canaan for Egypt where they prospered until the Egyptians enslaved them in 1300BCE. Moses led his people out of Egypt across the Red Sea (which parted) to facilitate the escape into the desert of the Sinai Peninsula. Their story became the basis for the Book of Exodus. The Hebrew culture had a profound impact on **Western Civilization** providing the moral and ethical foundation for religion including Christianity and Islam. The stories recorded in the Torah inspired the works of art, music, and literature. Hebrews introduced the concept of monotheism or belief in a single God. In 520 BCE Persian invaders freed the Jews from captivity of the Babylonians. The Jews returned to Judah and found that the Ark of the Covenant was missing from the Temple of Jerusalem. Some of the scattered Jews settled elsewhere and they are known as the Jews of the Diaspora or 'dispersion'. The Persian Empire In 520 BCE, the nomadic tribe occupying the Iranian Plateau defeated the Babylonians and freed the Jews. By the time of Cyrus' death (559-530BCE), the Persians had taken control of the Greek Cities in Ionia. Under King Darius (522-486 BCE) the empire stretched from Egypt in the south, around Asia Minor, to the Ukraine in the north. The capital of the empire which the Greeks called Persepolis or the city of the Persians was located in Zogros now called Iran. Their relief sculptures reflected the diversity of the cultures further reflecting that all people of the other regions owed the Persian King allegiance. Rulers are depicted larger than the other people with their subjects bringing gifts to the palace. Xerxes, Darius' son is depicted behind him as if waiting to take his place as the Persian ruler. The Stability of Ancient Egypt: Flood and Sun The civilizations of both Mesopotamia and Egypt have so much in common-formed around river systems: Tigris and Euphrates in Mesopotamia and the Nile in Egypt. Since their life depended on agriculture, both learned to control the flow of the river by constructing dams and irrigation canals. Both Egyptians and Mesopotamians built massive agricultural structures dedicated to their Gods --ziggurats in Mesopotamia and Pyramids in Egypt. Ziggurats appear to be dedicated to water and pyramids to the sun. Both unite earth and sky in a single architectural form. Pictorial Formulas in Egyptian Art In Egyptian paintings, the subjects are arranged in such a way that provide a ground line for the figures to stand facing right, although in some cases there is balance between left and right. The arms, face, legs, and feet are in profile with the left foot advanced in front of the right. Eyes and shoulders are in front view. Mouth, navel, and hips are in three-quarter view. Each person is in a composite view, the integration of multiple perspectives in a unified image. Not only the figures, but also the scenes unite contradictory points of view into a single image. Toward the end of the eighteenth dynasty, Egypt experienced one of the few real crises of its entire history when Amenhotep IV (1353-1337 BCE) assumed the throne of his father Amenhotep III (1391- 1353 BCE). Amenhotep abolished the pantheon of Egyptian Gods and established a monotheistic religion in which the sun disk Aten was worshipped exclusively. Amenhotep was so dedicated to Aten that he changed his name to Akhenaten (The Shining Spirit of Aten) and moved the capital of Egypt from Thebes to a site many miles north (Akhenaten) modern Tell el-Amarna. The political, cultural, and religious changes affected the visual arts. Now, the perfection of the Gods was in question- principles of art were re-examined. A new art replaced the old canon of proportion. Kings and queens posed with realism and intimacy with the king, skinny and sitting slump and his belly protruding from his skirt contrasting the idealized depiction of the pharaohs in earlier periods. Upon the death of Akhenaten, Tutankhaten (1336-1337) changed his name to Tutankhamun (indicating the return to traditional Gods, in this case, Amun). He left Tell el-Amarna and moved to Memphis and re-affirmed Thebes as the nation's religious center. Tutankhamun's the only royal tomb discovered still intact under the tomb of the Twentieth Dynasty King Ramses VII in the Valley of the Kings near Deir el-Bahri. There were three coffins one placed inside the other, encased in quartzite [sarcophagus,] rectangular stone coffin encased in four gilded boxlike wooden shrines placed one inside the other, depicting the king back to the traditional Egyptian art of the Middle Kingdom. This stage is characterized by stone tools shaped by polishing or grinding, dependence on domesticated plants or animals, settlement in permanent villages. in this stage, humans were no longer dependent on hunting, fishing, and gathering wild plants. Decorated Cave of Pont d\'Arc, known as Grotte Chauvet-Pont d \... The decorated cave of Pont d\'Arc, known as Grotte Chauvet-Pont d\'Arc is located in a limestone plateau of the meandering Ardèche River in southern France, and extends to an area of approximately 8,500 square meters.  The bison depiction in the Altamira Cave, discovered in the late 19th century, are some of the of the most iconic examples of Paleolithic art, dating back approximately 36,000 to 14,000 years ago. Neolithic Pottery  Neolithic Pottery  Modern Art ---------- Autumn Rhythm Autumn Rhythm, Jackson Pollock, 1950 - Year Range: Late 19th Century -- 1970s - Characteristics: Experimentation with form and technique, abstraction, rejection of traditional perspectives and subjects, emphasis on the individual's interpretation of reality. - Popular Artists: [Pablo Picasso](https://www.artchive.com/artists/pablo-picasso/), [Salvador Dalí](https://www.artchive.com/artists/salvador-dali/), [Henri Matisse](https://www.artchive.com/artists/henri-matisse/), [Jackson Pollock](https://www.artchive.com/artists/jackson-pollock/). - Notable Artwork: [Picasso's "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon,"](https://www.artchive.com/artwork/les-demoiselles-davignon-pablo-picasso-1907/) [Dalí's "The Persistence of Memory,"](https://www.artchive.com/artwork/the-persistence-of-memory-salvador-dali-1931/) Matisse's "Dance," [Pollock's "Autumn Rhythm."](https://www.artchive.com/artwork/autumn-rhythm-number-30,-1950-1950-by-jackson-pollock/) Modern Art encompasses a wide range of art movements and styles that emerged from the late 19th century through the 1970s, characterized by a deliberate departure from tradition and a search for new forms of expression. *This period marked a shift towards experimentation and a questioning of the conventions of representation, seen in movements such as Impressionism, Cubism, Surrealism, and Abstract Expressionism.* Artists sought to express their individual perspective and to reflect the rapid changes in society, technology, and philosophy of their time. Notable figures include *Pablo Picasso*, whose pioneering Cubist works challenged traditional forms of perspective; Salvador Dalí, known for his striking and bizarre Surrealist imagery; Henri Matisse, who was celebrated for his vibrant use of color and fluid draughtsmanship; and Jackson Pollock, whose Abstract Expressionist techniques revolutionized the concept of painting. These artists, among others, pushed the boundaries of what art could be, leading to a diverse and dynamic legacy that continues to influence contemporary art. Neo-expressionism -----------------  Untitled (Skull) -- Basquait, Jean-Michel -- 1981 - Year Range: Late 1970s -- 1980s - Characteristics: Intense subjectivity and raw emotionality, often with aggressive, dynamic brushwork and vivid colors; revival of painting with a focus on figurative work; reaction against conceptual and minimalist art. - Popular Artists: Jean-Michel Basquiat, Anselm Kiefer, Julian Schnabel, Georg Baselitz. - Notable Artwork: Basquiat's "Untitled (Skull)," Kiefer's "Margarethe," Schnabel's "The Walk Home," Baselitz's "The Brücke Chorus." **Neo-expressionism** emerged as a significant art movement in the late 1970s and 1980s, characterized by *a return to the powerful expression of emotion and personal feeling in painting*, as a response to the perceived intellectual dryness and detachment of Minimalism and Conceptual art. Artists in this movement favored large canvases, dramatic colors, and loose, expressive brushwork that often conveyed a sense of urgency or intensity. *The subject matter was frequently figurative, exploring themes of history, mythology, and contemporary culture, including the human condition and personal identity.* Neo-expressionism was particularly prominent in Germany, Italy, and the United States. Jean-Michel Basquiat's "Untitled (Skull)" exemplifies the movement's characteristic raw, emotive style and its engagement with personal and social commentary. Anselm Kiefer's textured, often somber works, such as "Margarethe," confront the dark chapters of German history. Julian Schnabel's "The Walk Home" and Georg Baselitz's "The Brücke Chorus" demonstrate the revival of interest in painterly, narrative, and expressive qualities in art. Neo-expressionism marked a pivotal moment in late 20th-century art, reinvigorating painting with a sense of passion and drama that had been largely absent in the preceding decades. Street Art ---------- Crack is WackCrack is Wack, Keith Haring, 1986 - Year Range: 1970s -- Present - Characteristics: Public spaces as the canvas, often unsanctioned, includes graffiti, stencil graffiti, sticker art, street installation, and murals; vibrant graphics, social and political messages, and an underground or counter-culture ethos. - Popular Artists: Banksy, Shepard Fairey, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring. - Notable Artwork: Banksy's "Balloon Girl," Fairey's "Hope" poster, Basquiat's SAMO© tags, Haring's "Crack is Wack" mural. **Street art** is an explosive, contemporary art movement that started in the 1970s and continues to evolve. *It encompasses a wide range of visual art forms created in public locations, typically outside of the traditional art venues.* *Street art often conveys a powerful social or political message and is usually executed without official permission*. *It has grown from its graffiti heritage into a rich and complex form of expression that includes stencil graffiti, sticker art, wheatpasting, and large-scale murals.* Notable artists like Banksy have gained international recognition for their thought-provoking stencil work, such as "Balloon Girl," which combines dark humor with a graffiti execution style. Shepard Fairey's "Hope" poster became an iconic image during Barack Obama's presidential campaign, illustrating how street art can influence the political landscape. Jean-Michel Basquiat began his career as a graffiti artist under the tag SAMO© before transitioning to galleries, blending poetry, drawing, and painting. Keith Haring gained attention with his public works in subways and later, with his "Crack is Wack" mural, which became a symbol of social activism. Street art has transformed the way art is created and consumed, often reflecting the voice of the urban environment and its inhabitants, and has firmly established itself as a significant art movement of our time. Land Art -------- - Year Range: Late 1960s -- 1970s - Characteristics: Use of natural landscapes to create site-specific structures, forms, and patterns; integration of art and the natural environment; often large-scale and outdoor; impermanence and the passage of time. - Popular Artists: Robert Smithson, Michael Heizer, Nancy Holt, James Turrell. - Notable Artwork: Smithson's "Spiral Jetty," Heizer's "Double Negative," Holt's "Sun Tunnels," Turrell's "Roden Crater." Land art, also known as **Earth art**, emerged in the late 1960s and early 1970s, primarily in the United States, as part of the wider conceptual art movement. *This movement sought to move art outside the confines of the gallery, using the earth itself as the medium.* Artists engaged with the landscape to create large-scale interventions that transformed natural spaces into artworks. These works often emphasized the transient nature of art and its interplay with the environment, highlighting ecological concerns and the passage of time. Robert Smithson's "Spiral Jetty," a coil of rocks and earth extending into the Great Salt Lake in Utah, is one of the most iconic works of the movement, embodying the synthesis of human creativity and natural forces. Michael Heizer's "Double Negative," a massive intervention in the Nevada desert, involves two large trenches cut into the mesa, playing with notions of presence and absence. Nancy Holt's "Sun Tunnels" consists of large concrete cylinders in the Utah desert that align with the sun during solstices, blending art with astronomical phenomena. James Turrell's ongoing "Roden Crater" project transforms a volcanic crater into a monumental work of art that focuses on light and perception.  2,462 Art Landscape Philippines Images, Stock Photos, 3D \... Postmodern Art -------------- The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, Damien Hirst, 1991 - Year Range: 1970s -- Present - Characteristics: Eclecticism, skepticism towards grand narratives, blending of high and low culture, use of pastiche, irony, and paradox, questioning of artistic authority and conventions. - Popular Artists: Jeff Koons, Cindy Sherman, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Damien Hirst. - Notable Artwork: Koons's "Balloon Dog," Sherman's "Untitled Film Stills," Basquiat's "Untitled (Skull)," Hirst's "The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living." *Postmodern art emerged in the 1970s as a reaction against the perceived elitism and rules of modernism, challenging the previously dominant narratives and conventions of art history and criticism.* It is characterized by a diverse range of styles and attitudes, often incorporating elements from popular culture, history, and other art movements in a pastiche that questions the role and definition of art. Postmodern artists employ irony, paradox, and playfulness to critique societal norms and the art world itself, blurring the boundaries between high art and popular culture. Jeff Koons's work, such as "Balloon Dog," exemplifies the postmodern fascination with consumer goods and kitsch, transforming them into high art. Cindy Sherman's "Untitled Film Stills" challenge traditional roles and representations of women in media by placing herself in various cinematic guises. Jean-Michel Basquiat's raw, expressive works blend graffiti with elements of Neo-Expressionism, addressing themes of race, identity, and social tensions. Damien Hirst's exploration of death and decay, as seen in "The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living," questions the nature of art and its relationship with contemporary life. Postmodern art's legacy lies in its ongoing influence on contemporary art, continually challenging and expanding the boundaries of what art can be. Contemporary Art ---------------- - Year Range: 1970s -- Present - Characteristics: Diversity of subjects and techniques, digital technology use, conceptual art, interactive installations, a global perspective, and social and political commentary. - Popular Artists: Ai Weiwei, Jeff Koons, [Damien Hirst](https://www.artchive.com/artists/damien-hirst/), Cindy Sherman. - Notable Artwork: Ai Weiwei's "Sunflower Seeds," Jeff Koons's "Balloon Dog," Damien Hirst's "[The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living](https://www.artchive.com/artwork/the-physical-impossibility-of-death-in-the-mind-of-someone-living-damien-hirst/)," Cindy Sherman's "Untitled Film Stills." *Contemporary art encompasses the works of art produced from the 1970s to the present day, characterized by a wide-ranging global diversity in terms of style, medium, and content. This period reflects a departure from the conventions of traditional art forms, embracing instead a myriad of practices including digital art, installation art, performance art, video art, and conceptual art. Artists of this era are known for their innovative use of materials and technology, as well as for engaging with social, political, and cultural issues. The movement is marked by its global perspective, with significant contributions from artists around the world.* Notable artists include Ai Weiwei, known for his politically charged installations; Jeff Koons, who explores consumerism and pop culture; Damien Hirst, who challenges notions of beauty, decay, and mortality; and Cindy Sherman, renowned for her conceptual portraits challenging female stereotypes. Contemporary art venues like the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Tate Modern in London, and the Centre Pompidou in Paris are key locations where this diverse and evolving art form is displayed, reflecting the complex and interconnected world of today. **APPROPRIATION** [**https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7TsFFTD\_\_4**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7TsFFTD__4) **1. Definition of Appropriation in Art** **2. Characteristics of Appropriation** **3. Historical Context of Appropriation** **4. Key Movements Involving Appropriation** **5. Contemporary Appropriation** **6. Key Artists and Works** **7. Appropriation vs. Cultural Appropriation** **8. Ethical and Legal Considerations** **9. Theoretical Perspectives** **10. Appropriation and Art Appreciation** **5 ACTS OF CULTURAL APPROPRIATION** CULTURAL APPROPRIATION -- According to the critics of the custom, cultural appropriation is distinct from acculturation, assimilation, or even cultural fusion because it is a form of colonization. When members of a majority society borrow cultural features from a community of marginalized communities, such elements are incorporated without their background and, occasionally, against express wishes. 1\. OBJECT APPRECIATION -- Physical artworks will be the first kind of item with which we will be dealing. It refers to the appropriation of those items as appropriations for objects. Object appropriation occurs when the ownership of a physical piece of art (e.g., a statue or a drawing) is passed from members of a particular group to the people of the other. **1. Object Appropriation** Fountain\', Marcel Duchamp, 1917, replica 1964 \| Tate Marcel Duchamp\'s presentation of a mass-produced urinal, titled *Fountain* (1917), is a foundational example of object appropriation in modern art. By designating the urinal as art and submitting it to an exhibition, Duchamp challenged traditional notions of artistic creation, originality, and value. His concept of the *readymade* emphasized that the artist\'s intent and context could transform an ordinary object into a work of art. This act reframed art as a conceptual practice, shifting focus from craftsmanship to the ideas behind the work. Duchamp\'s appropriation questioned the role of the artist, the audience, and institutional authority in defining what constitutes art. It laid the groundwork for subsequent movements, such as Pop Art and conceptual art, influencing artists like Jeff Koons, who similarly recontextualize mass-produced objects to provoke discourse on art and culture. Jeff Koons\' use of everyday objects, such as balloon animals, reflects his approach to *object appropriation*, where mundane or mass-produced items are transformed into monumental artworks. By recontextualizing these objects in polished, often oversized forms, Koons challenges the boundaries between high art and popular culture. This strategy draws on traditions of **Pop Art** (e.g., Warhol) but takes it further by emphasizing the spectacle and luxury associated with contemporary art markets. Koons elevates the banal into the extraordinary, prompting viewers to reconsider the aesthetic and cultural value of everyday items. His works often evoke both nostalgia and critique, exploring themes of consumerism, kitsch, and identity. Appropriation here becomes a tool for democratizing art while also questioning authenticity and originality in a postmodern context. **2. Content Appropriation** Sherrie Levine's *After Walker Evans* (1981) is a landmark example of **content appropriation** in postmodern art. By rephotographing Walker Evans' iconic Depression-era images and presenting them as her own work, Levine questioned ideas of originality, authorship, and ownership in art. Her work critiques the patriarchal structures of the art world and challenges the romanticized notion of the artist as an individual genius. By appropriating Evans' images---already widely reproduced---Levine highlights how all art exists within a cycle of influence, reproduction, and reinterpretation. This act of content appropriation aligns with the postmodern idea that meaning is constructed through context rather than inherent in an object, prompting viewers to consider the fluidity of artistic value and the tension between creation and replication in cultural production. **3. Style Appropriation**  Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque\'s use of stylistic elements from African masks and sculptures in developing Cubism represents a significant example of **style appropriation**. They drew inspiration from the formal qualities of African art---its abstraction, geometric simplification, and emphasis on essential features---integrating these elements into a radical new visual language that challenged traditional Western perspectives. While their work marked a groundbreaking shift in modern art, this appropriation is controversial. It often ignored the cultural and spiritual significance of the African objects, treating them as aesthetic resources rather than acknowledging their origins or contexts. This reflects broader colonial dynamics, where non-Western art was exoticized and decontextualized for European artistic innovation. The appropriation in Cubism highlights both the generative potential of cross-cultural influences and the ethical concerns surrounding the erasure or commodification of marginalized cultures in art history. Picasso and Braque may have pioneered one of the most radical avant-garde movements in Europe during the early 20th century: Cubism. But African carvers were first to abstract reality. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/d/df/Roy\_Lichtenstein\_Drowning\_Girl.jpg/300px-Roy\_Lichtenstein\_Drowning\_Girl.jpg  Roy Lichtenstein's adaptation of the comic book aesthetic in works like *Whaam!* and *Drowning Girl* represents **style appropriation**, where he adopts the visual language of mass-produced, lowbrow art forms and recontextualizes them within the high art world of Pop Art. **Analysis:** 1. **Transformation of Medium**: 2. **Detachment and Irony**: 3. **Cultural Commentary**: 4. **Ethical Debates**: By appropriating the comic book style, Lichtenstein reshaped how popular imagery was perceived, forcing audiences to confront the boundaries between high art and mass culture. His approach emphasizes how style itself can become a tool for cultural critique. **4. Motif Appropriation** https://vitruvius.museumseven.com/render/600-600\@2/dp-508301-30.jpg Henri Matisse was deeply inspired by Islamic and Moorish art, borrowing elements such as patterns, colors, and motifs to enrich his visual vocabulary. His encounters with Islamic art, particularly during travels to North Africa and exposure to Moorish architecture in Spain, left a lasting impression on his work. **Key Aspects of Matisse\'s Motif Appropriation:** 1. **Ornamental Patterns**: 2. **Color and Rhythm**: 3. **Spatial Experimentation**: 4. **Textile Influence**: 5. **Ethical and Contextual Considerations**: Matisse\'s fascination with these influences demonstrates how artists adapt and transform motifs across cultures, contributing to the broader dialogue of art history. However, contemporary discussions also encourage critical examination of the power dynamics inherent in such exchanges. **5. Contextual Appropriation** Banksy\'s reinterpretation of **Monet\'s *Water Lilies***, famously featuring shopping carts and a traffic cone floating in the tranquil pond, exemplifies **contextual appropriation** by transforming the serene, idyllic imagery of Monet's masterpiece into a critique of consumerism and environmental degradation. This work underscores the tension between nature and human impact in a modern, industrialized world. **Analysis:** 1. **Juxtaposition of Contexts**: 2. **Political and Social Critique**: 3. **Subversion of Art Historical Legacy**: 4. **Cultural Accessibility**: Banksy's *Water Lilies* exemplifies how contextual appropriation can redefine an artwork's meaning, using familiar imagery to provoke discourse on urgent societal issues. **Reflection on Art Appropriation** **PERFORMANCE ART** *.* Conceptual work by [Yves Klein](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yves_Klein) at Rue Gentil-Bernard, Fontenay-aux-Roses, October 1960. *Le Saut dans le Vide* (*Leap into the Void*). **Performance art** is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a public in a [fine art](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fine_art) context in an interdisciplinary mode.[^\[1\]^](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Performance_art#cite_note-Tate_Modern-1) Also known as *artistic action*, it has been developed through the years as a genre of its own in which art is presented live. It had an important and fundamental role in 20th century [avant-garde art](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avant-garde_art). It involves five basic elements: time, space, body, and presence of the artist, and the relation between the creator and the public. The actions, generally developed in art galleries and museums, can take place in the street, any kind of setting or space and during any time period. Its goal is to generate a reaction, sometimes with the support of improvisation and a sense of aesthetics. The themes are commonly linked to life experiences of the artist themselves, the need for denunciation or social criticism and with a spirit of transformation. The term \"performance art\" and \"performance\" became widely used in the 1970s, even though the history of performance in [visual arts](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_arts) dates back to futurist productions and cabarets from the 1910s. Art critic and performance artist [John Perreault](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Perreault) credits [Marjorie Strider](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marjorie_Strider) with the invention of the term in 1969. The main pioneers of performance art include Carolee Schneemann, [Marina Abramović](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marina_Abramovi%C4%87), [Ana Mendieta](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ana_Mendieta), [Chris Burden](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Burden), [Hermann Nitsch](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Nitsch), [Joseph Beuys](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Beuys), [Nam June Paik](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nam_June_Paik), Tehching Hsieh, [Yves Klein](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yves_Klein) and [Vito Acconci](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vito_Acconci).[^\[12\]^](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Performance_art#cite_note-12) Some of the main exponents more recently are [Tania Bruguera](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tania_Bruguera), [Abel Azcona](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abel_Azcona), [Regina José Galindo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regina_Jos%C3%A9_Galindo), [Marta Minujín](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marta_Minuj%C3%ADn), Melati Suryodarmo and Petr Pavlensky. The discipline is linked to the [*happenings*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happening) and \"events\" of the Fluxus movement, [Viennese Actionism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viennese_Actionism), [body art](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_art) and [conceptual art](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conceptual_art). The definition and historical and pedagogical contextualization of performance art is controversial. One of the handicaps comes from the term itself, which is polysemic, and one of its meanings relates to the scenic arts. This meaning of \"performance\" in the scenic-arts context differs radically from the concept of \"performance art\", since performance art emerged with a critical and antagonistic position towards scenic arts. Performance art only adjoins the scenic arts in certain aspects such as the audience and the present body, and still not every performance-art piece contains these elements. The meaning of the term \"performance art\" in the narrower sense is related to [postmodernist](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmodernist) traditions in Western culture. From about the mid-1960s into the 1970s, often derived from concepts of visual art, with respect to [Antonin Artaud](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonin_Artaud), [Dada](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dada), the Situationists, Fluxus, [installation art](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Installation_art), and [conceptual art](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conceptual_art), performance art tended to be defined as an [antithesis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antithesis) to theatre, challenging orthodox art-forms and cultural norms. The ideal had been an ephemeral and authentic experience for performer and audience in an event that could not be repeated, captured or purchased. The widely discussed difference, how concepts of visual arts and concepts of performing arts are used, can determine the meanings of a performance-art presentation. [\"Performance art\" is a term usually reserved to refer to a conceptual art that conveys a content-based meaning in a more drama-related sense, rather than being simple performance for its own sake for entertainment purposes]. It largely refers to a performance presented to an audience, but which does not seek to present a conventional theatrical play or a formal linear narrative, or which alternately does not seek to depict a set of fictitious characters in formal scripted interactions. It therefore can include action or spoken word as a communication between the artist and audience, or even ignore expectations of an audience, rather than following a script written beforehand. Some types of performance art nevertheless can be close to [performing arts](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Performing_arts). Such performance may use a script or create a fictitious dramatic setting, but still constitute performance art in that it does not seek to follow the usual dramatic norm of creating a fictitious setting with a linear script which follows conventional real-world dynamics; rather, it would intentionally seek to satirize or to transcend the usual real-world dynamics which are used in conventional theatrical plays. Performance artists often challenge the audience to think in new and unconventional ways, break conventions of traditional arts, and break down conventional ideas about \"what art is\". As long as the performer does not become a player who repeats a role, performance art can include satirical elements; use robots and machines as performers, as in pieces of the [Survival Research Laboratories](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survival_Research_Laboratories); involve ritualised elements (e.g. [Shaun Caton](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaun_Caton)); or borrow elements of any performing arts such as dance, music, and [circus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circus_(performing_art)). [Performance art can also involve intersection with architecture, and may intertwine with ][religious](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious)[ practice and with ][theology](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theology)[. ] Some artists, e.g. the [Viennese Actionists](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viennese_Actionism) and [neo-Dadaists](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo-Dada), prefer to use the terms \"live art\", \"action art\", \"actions\", \"intervention\" or \"manoeuvre\" to describe their performing activities. As genres of performance art appear [body art](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_art), fluxus-performance, [happening](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happening), [action poetry](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_poetry), and Performance art is a form of expression that was born as an alternative artistic manifestation. The discipline emerged in 1916 parallel to dadaism, under the umbrella of conceptual art. The movement was led by [Tristan Tzara](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tristan_Tzara), one of the pioneers of [Dada](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dada). Western culture theorists have set the origins of performance art in the beginnings of the 20th century, along with [constructivism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructivism_(art)), [Futurism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futurism) and Dadaism. Dada was an important inspiration because of their poetry actions, which drifted apart from conventionalisms, and futurist artists, specially some members of [Russian futurism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_futurism), could also be identified as part of the starting process of performance art. ### Futurism [Futurism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futurism) was an artistic avant garde movement that appeared in 1909. It first started as a literary movement, even though most of the participants were painters. In the beginning it also included sculpture, photography, music and cinema. The First World War put an end to the movement, even though in Italy it went on until the 1930s. One of the countries where it had the most impact was Russia. In 1912 manifestos such as the *Futurist Sculpture Manifesto* and the *Futurist Architecture* arose, and in 1913 the *Manifesto of Futurist Lust* by [Valentine de Saint-Point](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentine_de_Saint-Point), dancer, writer and French artist. The futurists spread their theories through encounters, meetings and conferences in public spaces, that got close to the idea of a political concentration, with poetry and music-halls, which anticipated performance art. ### Bauhaus The [Bauhaus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bauhaus), an art school founded in Weimar in 1919, included an experimental performing arts workshops with the goal of exploring the relationship between the body, space, sound and light. The [Black Mountain College](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Mountain_College), founded in the United States by instructors of the original Bauhaus who were exiled by the Nazi Party, continued incorporating experimental performing arts in the scenic arts training twenty years before the events related to the history of performance in the 1960s. The name Bauhaus derives from the German words Bau, *construction* and Haus, *house*; ironically, despite its name and the fact that his founder was an architect, the Bauhaus did not have an architecture department the first years of its existence. ### Action painting In the 1940s and 1950s, **[the action painting technique or movement gave artists the possibility of interpreting the canvas as an area to act in, rendering the paintings as traces of the artist\'s performance in the studio]**  According to art critic [Harold Rosenberg](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Rosenberg), it was one of the initiating processes of performance art, along with abstract expressionism. [Jackson Pollock](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackson_Pollock) is the action painter par excellence, who carried out many of his actions live. In Europe [Yves Klein](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yves_Klein) did his Anthropométries using (female) bodies to paint canvasses as a public action. Names to be highlighted are [Willem de Kooning](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willem_de_Kooning) and [Franz Kline](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Kline), whose work include abstract and action painting. ### Nouveau réalisme [Nouveau réalisme](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nouveau_r%C3%A9alisme) is another one of the artistic movements cited in the beginnings of performance art. It was a painting movement founded in 1960 by art critic [Pierre Restany](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Restany) and painter [Yves Klein](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yves_Klein), during the first collective exhibition in the Apollinaire Gallery in Milan. Nouveau réalisme was, along with Fluxus and other groups, one of the many avant garde tendencies of the 1960s. [Pierre Restany](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Restany) created various performance art assemblies in the [Tate Modern](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tate_Modern), amongst other spaces. Yves Klein is one of the main exponents of the movement. He was a clear pioneer of performance art, with his conceptual pieces like [*Zone de Sensibilité Picturale Immatérielle*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zone_de_Sensibilit%C3%A9_Picturale_Immat%C3%A9rielle) (1959--62), *Anthropométries* (1960), and the photomontage *Saut dans le vide*. All his works have a connection with performance art, as they are created as a live action, like his best-known artworks of paintings created with the bodies of women. **[The members of the group saw the world as an image, from which they took parts and incorporated them into their work; they sought to bring life and art closer together. ]** ### Gutai One of the other movements that anticipated performance art was the Japanese movement Gutai, who made action art or [happening](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happening). It emerged in 1955 in the region of [Kansai](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansai) ([Kyōto](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kioto), [Ōsaka](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osaka), Kōbe). The main participants were Jirō Yoshihara, Sadamasa Motonaga, Shozo Shimamoto, Saburō Murakami, Katsuō Shiraga, Seichi Sato, Akira Ganayama and Atsuko Tanaka.[^\[53\]^](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Performance_art#cite_note-:5-53) The Gutai group arose after World War II. **[They rejected capitalist consumerism, carrying out ironic actions with latent aggressiveness (object breaking, actions with smoke).]** They influenced groups such as Fluxus and artists like [Joseph Beuys](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Beuys) and [Wolf Vostell](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf_Vostell). ### Land art and performance In the late 1960s, diverse [**land art**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_art) artists such as [Robert Smithson](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Smithson) or [Dennis Oppenheim](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Oppenheim) created environmental pieces that preceded performance art in the 1970s. Works by conceptual artists from the early 1980s, such as [Sol LeWitt](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sol_LeWitt), who made mural drawing into a performance act, were influenced by [Yves Klein](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yves_Klein) and other land art artists. Land art is a [contemporary art](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contemporary_art) movement in which the landscape and the artwork are deeply bound. It uses nature as a material (wood, soil, rocks, sand, wind, fire, water, etc.) to intervene on itself. The artwork is generated with the place itself as a starting point. The result is sometimes a junction between sculpture and architecture, and sometimes a junction between sculpture and landscaping that is increasingly taking a more determinant role in contemporary public spaces. When incorporating the artist\'s body in the creative process, it acquires similarities with the beginnings of performance art. ### The Living Theatre Indirectly influential for art-world performance, particularly in the United States, were new forms of theatre, embodied by the San Francisco Mime Troupe and the Living Theatre and showcased in Off-Off Broadway theaters in SoHO and at La MaMa in New York City. The Living Theatre is a theater company created in 1947 in New York. It is the oldest [experimental theatre](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experimental_theatre) in the United States. Throughout its history it has been led by its founders: actress [Judith Malina](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judith_Malina), who had studied theatre with [Erwin Piscator](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erwin_Piscator), with whom she studied Bertolt Brecht\'s and Meyerhold\'s theory; and painter and poet [Julian Beck](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Beck). After Beck\'s death in 1985, the company member Hanon Reznikov became co-director along with Malina. Because it is one of the oldest random theatre or live theatre groups nowadays, it is looked upon by the rest. They understood theatre as a way of life, and the actors lived in a community under libertary principles. **[It was a theatre campaign dedicated to transformation of the power organization of an authoritarian society and hierarchical structure]**. The Living Theatre chiefly toured in Europe between 1963 and 1968, and in the U.S. in 1968. A work of this period, *Paradise Now*, was notorious for its audience participation and a scene in which actors recited a list of social taboos that included nudity, while disrobing. ### Fluxus [**Fluxus**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluxus), a Latin word that means *flow*, is a visual arts movement related to music, literature, and dance. Its most active moment was in the 1960s and 1970s. **[They proclaimed themselves against the traditional artistic object as a commodity and declared themselves a sociological art movement.]** Fluxus was informally organized in 1962 by [George Maciunas](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Maciunas) (1931--1978). This movement had representation in Europe, the United States and Japan.[^\[71\]^](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Performance_art#cite_note-71) The Fluxus movement, mostly developed in North America and Europe under the stimulus of [John Cage](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Cage), did not see the avant-garde as a linguistic renovation, but it sought to make a different use of the main art channels that separate themselves from specific language; it tries to be interdisciplinary and to adopt mediums and materials from different fields. Language is not the goal, but the mean for a renovation of art, seen as a global art. As well as [Dada](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dada), Fluxus escaped any attempt for a definition or categorization. As one of the movement\'s founders, [Dick Higgins](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Higgins), stated: Fluxus started with the work, and then came together, applying the name Fluxus to work which already existed. It was as if it started in the middle of the situation, rather than at the beginning. [Robert Filliou](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Filliou) places Fluxus opposite to conceptual art for its direct, immediate and urgent reference to everyday life, and turns around Duchamp\'s proposal, who starting from [Ready-made](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Found_object), introduced the daily into art, whereas Fluxus dissolved art into the daily, many times with small actions or performances. [John Cage](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Cage) was an American composer, [music theorist](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_theory), artist, and philosopher. A pioneer of [indeterminacy in music](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indeterminacy_(music)), [electroacoustic music](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electroacoustic_music), and [non-standard use of musical instruments](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extended_technique), Cage was one of the leading figures of the post-war [avant-garde](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avant-garde). Critics have lauded him as one of the most influential composers of the 20th century. He was also instrumental in the development of [modern dance](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_dance), mostly through his association with choreographer Merce Cunningham, who was also Cage\'s romantic partner for most of their lives. Cage\'s friend [Sari Dienes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sari_Dienes) can be seen as an important link between the [Abstract Expressionists](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abstract_Expressionists), Neo-[Dada](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dada) artists like [Robert Rauschenberg](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Rauschenberg) and [Ray Johnson](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Johnson), and Fluxus. Dienes inspired all these artists to blur the lines between life, Zen, performative art-making techniques and \"events,\" in both pre-meditated and spontaneous ways. ### Process art **[Process art](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Process_art)[ is an ][artistic movement](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artistic_movement)[ where the end product of *art* and *craft*, the ][*objet d'art*](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/objet_d%E2%80%99art)[ (][work of art](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work_of_art)[/][found object](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Found_object)[), is not the principal focus; the process of its making is one of the most relevant aspects if not the most important one:]** ***the gathering, sorting, collating, associating, patterning, and moreover the initiation of actions and proceedings***. Process artists saw art as pure human expression. Process art defends the idea that the process of creating the work of art can be an art piece itself. Artist [Robert Morris](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Morris_(artist)) predicated \"anti-form\", *process* and *time *over an objectual finished product. ### Happening [Wardrip-Fruin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noah_Wardrip-Fruin) and [Montfort](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Montfort) in *The New Media Reader*, \"The term \'Happening\' has been used to describe many performances and events, organized by Allan Kaprow and others during the 1950s and 1960s, including a number of theatrical productions that were traditionally scripted and invited only limited audience interaction.\" A *happening* allows the artist to experiment with the movement of the body, recorded sounds, written and talked texts, and even smells. One of Kaprow\'s first works was *Happenings in the New York Scene*, written in 1961. Allan Kaprow\'s happenings turned the public into interpreters. Often the spectators became an active part of the act without realizing it. Other actors who created *happenings* were [Jim Dine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Dine), [Al Hansen](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Hansen), Claes Oldenburg, *Robert Whitman* and [Wolf Vostell](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf_Vostell): *Theater is in the Street* (Paris, 1958). ### Main artists The works by performance artists after 1968 showed many times influences from the political and cultural situation that year. [Barbara T. Smith](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Smith) with *Ritual Meal* (1969) was at the vanguard of body and scenic feminist art in the seventies, which included, amongst others, Carolee Schneemann and [Joan Jonas](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Jonas). These, along with [Yoko Ono](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoko_Ono), [Joseph Beuys](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Beuys), [Nam June Paik](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nam_June_Paik), [Wolf Vostell](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf_Vostell), [Allan Kaprow](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allan_Kaprow), [Vito Acconci](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vito_Acconci), [Chris Burden](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Burden) and [Dennis Oppenheim](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Oppenheim) were pioneers in the relationship between body art and performance art, as well as the Zaj collective in Spain with [Esther Ferrer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esther_Ferrer) and [Juan Hidalgo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Hidalgo_Codorniu). https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/2/20/Schneemann-Interior\_Scroll.gif/220px-Schneemann-Interior\_Scroll.gif [Carolee Schneemann](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolee_Schneemann), performing her piece *Interior Scroll.* [Yves Klein](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yves_Klein) in France, and Carolee Schneemann, [Yayoi Kusama](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yayoi_Kusama), [Charlotte Moorman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlotte_Moorman), and [Yoko Ono](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoko_Ono) in New York City were pioneers of performance based works of art, that often entailed nudity. [Barbara Smith](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Smith) is an artist and United States activist. [She is one of the main African-American exponents of ][feminism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminism)[ and ][LGBT](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT)[ activism in the United States. In the beginning of the 1970s she worked as a teacher, writer and defender of the black feminism current.] She has taught at numerous colleges and universities in the last five years. Smith\'s essays, reviews, articles, short stories and [literary criticism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literary_criticism) have appeared in a range of publications, including [*The New York Times*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_York_Times), [*The Guardian*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Guardian), [*The Village Voice*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Village_Voice) and [*The Nation*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nation). [Carolee Schneemann](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolee_Schneemann) was an American [visual experimental artist](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_artist), known for her multi-media works on the body, narrative, [sexuality](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_sexuality) and [gender](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender). She created pieces such as *Meat Joy* (1964) and *Interior Scroll* (1975). [Schneemann considered her body a surface for work. She described herself as a \"painter who has left the canvas to activate the real space and the lived time. ] [Joan Jonas](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Jonas) (born July 13, 1936) is an American visual artist and [a pioneer of ][video](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_art)[ and performance art,] who is one of the most important female artists to emerge in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Jonas\' projects and experiments provided the foundation on which much video performance art would be based. Her influences also extended to [conceptual art](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conceptual_art), theatre, performance art and other visual media. She lives and works in New York and Nova Scotia, Canada. Immersed in New York\'s downtown art scene of the 1960s, Jonas studied with the choreographer [Trisha Brown](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trisha_Brown) for two years. Jonas also worked with choreographers Yvonne Rainer and Steve Paxton. [Yoko Ono](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoko_Ono) was part of the avant-garde movement of the 1960s. She was part of the Fluxus movement. She is known for her performance art pieces in the late 1960s, works such as *Cut Piece*, where visitors could intervene in her body until she was left naked. One of her best known pieces is *Wall piece for orchestra* (1962). [Joseph Beuys](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Beuys) was a German Fluxus, [happening](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happening), performance artist, painter, sculptor, [medallist](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medallist) and [installation artist](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Installation_artist). In 1962 his actions alongside the Fluxus neodadaist movement started, group in which he ended up becoming the most important member. His most relevant achievement was his socialization of art, making it more accessible for every kind of public. In *How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare* (1965) he covered his face with honey and gold leaf and explained his work to a dead hare that lay in his arms. [In this work he linked spacial and sculptural, linguistic and sonorous factors to the artist\'s figure, to his bodily gesture, to the conscience of a communicator whose receptor is an animal]. Beuys acted as a shaman with healing and saving powers toward the society that he considered dead. In 1974 he carried out the performance [*I Like America and America Likes Me*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Like_America_and_America_Likes_Me) where Beuys, a coyote and materials such as paper, felt and thatch constituted the vehicle for its creation. He lived with the coyote for three days. He piled United States newspapers, a symbol of capitalism. With time, the tolerance between Beuys and the coyote grew and he ended up hugging the animal. Beuys repeats many elements used in other works. Objects that differ form Duchamp\'s ready-mades, not for their poor and ephemerality, but because they are part of Beuys\'s own life, who placed them after living with them and leaving his mark on them. Many have an autobiographical meaning, like the honey or the grease used by the tartars who saved in World War Two. In 1970 he made his *Felt Suit*. Also in 1970, Beuys taught sculpture in the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. In 1979, the [Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solomon_R._Guggenheim_Museum) of New York City exhibited a retrospective of his work from the 1940s to 1970. ### Video performance In the early 1970s the use of video format by performance artists was consolidated. Some exhibitions by [Joan Jonas](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Jonas) and [Vito Acconci](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vito_Acconci) were made entirely of video, activated by previous performative processes. In this decade, various books that talked about the use of the means of communication, video and cinema by performance artists, like *Expanded Cinema*, by Gene Youngblood, were published. One of the main artists who used video and performance, with notorious audiovisual installations, is the South Korean artist [Nam June Paik](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nam_June_Paik), who in the early 1960s had already been in the Fluxus movement until becoming a media artist and evolving into the audiovisual installations he is known for. [Carolee Schneemann](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolee_Schneemann)\'s and Robert Whitman\'s 1960s work regarding their video-performances must be taken into consideration as well. Both were pioneers of performance art, turning it into an independent art form in the early seventies. [Joan Jonas](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Jonas) started to include video in her experimental performances in 1972, while [Bruce Nauman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Nauman) scenified his acts to be directly recorded on video. Nauman is an American multimedia artist, whose sculptures, videos, graphic work and performances have helped diversify and develop culture from the 1960s on. His unsettling artworks emphasized the conceptual nature of art and the creation process. His priority is the idea and the creative process over the result. His art uses an incredible array of materials and especially his own body. [Gilbert and George](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilbert_and_George) are Italian artist Gilbert Proesch and English artist George Passmore, who have developed their work inside conceptual art, performance and body art. They were best known for their live-sculpture acts. One of their first makings was *The Singing Sculpture*, where the artists sang and danced \"Underneath the Arches\", a song from the 1930s. Since then they have forged a solid reputation as live-sculptures, making themselves works of art, exhibited in front of spectators through diverse time intervals. They usually appear dressed in suits and ties, adopting diverse postures that they maintain without moving, though sometimes they also move and read a text, and occasionally they appear in assemblies or artistic installations. Apart from their sculptures, Gilbert and George have also made pictorial works, collages and photomontages, where they pictured themselves next to diverse objects from their immediate surroundings, with references to urban culture and a strong content; they addressed topics such as sex, race, death and HIV, religion or politics, critiquing many times the British government and the established power. The group\'s most prolific and ambitious work was *Jack Freak Pictures*, where they had a constant presence of the colors red, white and blue in the Union Jack. Gilbert and George have exhibited their work in museums and galleries around the world, like the Stedelijk van Abbemuseum of [Eindhoven](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eindhoven) (1980), the Hayward Gallery in London (1987), and the [Tate Modern](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tate_Modern) (2007). They have participated in the Venice Biennale. In 1986 they won the Turner Prize. ### Endurance art **[Endurance performance art deepens the themes of trance, pain, solitude, deprivation of freedom, isolation or exhaustion.]** Some of the works, based on the passing of long periods of time are also known as long-durational performances. One of the pioneering artists was [Chris Burden](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Burden) in California since the 1970s. In one of his best known works, *Five days in a locker* (1971) he stayed for five days inside a school locker, in *Shoot* (1971) he was shot with a firearm, and inhabited for twenty two days a bed inside an art gallery in *Bed Piece* (1972). Another example of endurance artist is Tehching Hsieh. During a performance created in 1980--1981 (*Time Clock Piece*), where Hsieh took a photo of himself next to time clock installed in his studio every hour for an entire year. Hsieh is also known for his performances about deprivation of freedom; he spent an entire year confined. In *The House With the Ocean View* (2003), [Marina Abramović](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marina_Abramovi%C4%87) lived silently for twelve days without food. [The Nine Confinements or The Deprivation of Liberty](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nine_Confinements_or_The_Deprivation_of_Liberty) is a conceptual endurance artwork of critical content carried out in the years 2013 and 2016. All of them have in common the illegitimate deprivation of freedom. ### Performance in a political context In the mid-1970s, behind the **[Iron Curtain]**, in major Eastern Europe cities such as [Budapest](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budapest), Kraków, Belgrade, [Zagreb](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zagreb), [Novi Sad](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novi_Sad) and others, scenic arts of a more experimental content flourished. Against political and social control, different artists who made performance of political content arose. Orshi Drozdik\'s performance series, titled *Individual Mythology* 1975--77 and the *NudeModel* 1976--77. All her actions were critical of the patriarchal discourse in art and the forced emancipation programme and constructed by the equally patriarchal state. Drozdik showed a pioneer and feminist point of view on both, becoming one of the precursors of this type of critical art in Eastern Europe. In the 1970s, performance art, due to its fugacity, had a solid presence in the Eastern European avant-garde, specially in Poland and Yugoslavia, where dozens of artists who explored the body conceptually and critically emerged. ### The technique of performance art Until the 1980s, performance art has demystified virtuosism, this being one of its key characteristics. Nonetheless, from the 1980s on it started to adopt some technical brilliancy. In reference to the work *Presence and Resistance* by Philip Auslander, the dance critic Sally Banes writes, \"\... by the end of the 1980s, performance art had become so widely known that it no longer needed to be defined; mass culture, especially television, had come to supply both structure and subject matter for much performance art; and several performance artists, including Laurie Anderson, Spalding Gray, Eric Bogosian, Willem Dafoe, and Ann Magnuson, had indeed become crossover artists in mainstream entertainment.\" In this decade the parameters and technicalities built to purify and perfect performance art were defined. ### Critique and investigation of performance art Despite the fact that many performances are held within the circle of a small art-world group, Roselee Goldberg notes in *Performance Art: From Futurism to the Present* that \"performance has been a way of appealing directly to a large public, as well as shocking audiences into reassessing their own notions of art and its relation to culture. Conversely, public interest in the medium, especially in the 1980s, stems from an apparent desire of that public to gain access to the art world, to be a spectator of its ritual and its distinct community, and to be surprised by the unexpected, always unorthodox presentations that the artists devise.\" In this decade, publications and compilations about performance art and its best known artists emerged. ### Performance art from a political context In the 1980s, the political context played an important role in the artistic development and especially in performance, as almost every one of the works created with a critical and political discourse were in this discipline. Until the decline of the European Eastern bloc during the late 1980s, performance art had actively been rejected by most communist governments. With the exception of Poland and Yugoslavia, performance art was more or less banned in countries where any independent public event was feared. In the GDR, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Latvia it happened in apartments, at seemingly spontaneous gatherings in artist studios, in church-controlled settings, or was covered as another activity, like a photo-shoot. Isolated from the western conceptual context, in different settings it could be like a playful protest or a bitter comment, using subversive metaphors to express dissent with the political situation. Amongst the most remarkable performance art works of political content in this time were those of Tehching Hsieh between July 1983 and July 1984, *Art/Life: One Year Performance* (Rope Piece). ### Performance poetry In 1982 the terms \"poetry\" and \"performance\" were first used together. [Performance poetry](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Performance_poetry) appeared to distinguish text-based vocal performances from performance art, especially the work of escenic and musical performance artists, such as Laurie Anderson, who worked with music at that time. Performance poets relied more on the rhetorical and philosophical expression in their poetics than performance artists, who arose from the visual art genres of painting and sculpture. Many artists since [John Cage](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Cage) fuse performance with a poetical base. ### Feminist performance art https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/40/Andres%2BPina%2BMatthias\_wiki.jpg/220px-Andres%2BPina%2BMatthias\_wiki.jpg Since 1973 the Feminist Studio Workshop in the Woman\'s Building of Los Ángeles had an impact in the wave of feminist acts, but until 1980 they did not completely fuse. The conjunction between feminism and performance art progressed through the last decade. In the first two decades of performance art development, works that had not been conceived as feminist are seen as such now. Still, not until 1980 did artists self-define themselves as feminists. Artist groups in which women influenced by the 1968 student movement as well as the feminist movement stood out. This connection has been treated in contemporary art history research. Some of the women whose innovative input in representations and shows was the most relevant were Pina Bausch and the [Guerrilla Girls](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guerrilla_Girls) who emerged in 1985 in New York City, anonymous feminist and anti-racist art collective. They chose that name because they used guerrilla tactics in their activism  to denounce discrimination against women in art through political and performance art. Their first performance was placing posters and making public appearances in museums and galleries in New York, to critique the fact that some groups of people were discriminated against for their gender or race. All of this was done anonymously; in all of these appearances they covered their faces with gorilla masks (this was due to the similar pronunciation of the words \"gorilla\" and \"guerrilla\"). They used as nicknames the names of female artists who had died. From the 1970s until the 1980s, amongst the works that challenged the system and their usual strategies of representation, the main ones feature women\'s bodies, such as [Ana Mendieta](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ana_Mendieta)\'s works in New York City where her body is outraged and abused, or the artistic representations by [Louise Bourgeois](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louise_Bourgeois) with a rather minimalist discourse that emerge in the late seventies and eighties. Special mention to the works created with feminine and feminist corporeity such as [Lynda Benglis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynda_Benglis) and her phallic performative actions, who reconstructed the feminine image to turn it into more than a fetish. Through feminist performance art the body becomes a space for developing these new discourses and meanings. Artist [Eleanor Antin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleanor_Antin), creator in the 1970s and 1980s, worked on the topics of gender, race and class. [Cindy Sherman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cindy_Sherman), in her first works in the seventies and already in her artistic maturity in the eighties, continues her critical line of overturning the imposed self, through her use of the body as an object of privilege. [Cindy Sherman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cindy_Sherman) is an American photographer and artist. She is one of the most representative post-war artists and exhibited more than the work of three decades of her work in the MoMA. Even though she appears in most of her performative photographies, she does not consider them self-portraits. Sherman uses herself as a vehicle to represent a great array of topics of the contemporary world, such as the part women play in our society and the way they are represented in the media as well as the nature of art creation. In 2020 she was awarded with the *Wolf prize in arts*. [Judy Chicago](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judy_Chicago) is an artist and pioneer of feminist art and performance art in the United States. Chicago is known for her big collaborative art installation pieces on images of birth and creation, that examine women\'s part in history and culture. In the 1970s, Chicago has founded the first feminist art programme in the United States. Chicago\'s work incorporates a variety of artistic skills such as sewing, in contrast with skills that required a lot of workforce, like welding and pyrotechnics. Chicago\'s best known work is [*The Dinner Party*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dinner_Party), that was permanently installed in the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art in the [Brooklyn Museum](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooklyn_Museum). *The Dinner Party* celebrated the achievements of women throughout history and is widely considered as the first epic feminist artwork. Other remarkable projects include *International Honor Quilt*, *The Birth Project,* *Powerplay,* and *The Holocaust Project.* ### New-media performance In the late 1990s and into the 2000s, a number of artists incorporated technologies such as the World Wide Web, digital video, webcams, and streaming media, into performance artworks. Artists such as [Coco Fusco](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coco_Fusco), Shu Lea Cheang, and Prema Murthy produced performance art that drew attention to the role of gender, race, colonialism, and the body in relation to the Internet. Other artists, such as [Critical Art Ensemble](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_Art_Ensemble), [Electronic Disturbance Theater](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_Disturbance_Theater), and [Yes Men](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yes_Men), used digital technologies associated with hacktivism and [interventionism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interventionist_art) to raise political issues concerning new forms of capitalism and consumerism. In the second half of the decade, computer-aided forms of performance art began to take place. Many of these works led to the development of [algorithmic art](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algorithmic_art), [generative art](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generative_art), and [robotic art](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robotic_art), in which the computer itself, or a computer-controlled robot, becomes the performer. [Coco Fusco](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coco_Fusco) is an interdisciplinary Cuban-American artist, writer and curator who lives and works in the United States. Her artistic career began in 1988. In her work, she explores topics such as identity, race, power and gender through performance. She also makes videos, interactive installations and critical writing. ### Radical performance ###  [Petr Pavlensky](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petr_Pavlensky) cutting his own ear in a political action in the [Red Square](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Square) of Moscow https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6f/Pussy\_Riot\_protest.jpg/220px-Pussy\_Riot\_protest.jpg Protest for the liberation of [Pussy Riot](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pussy_Riot)  Pussy Riot during a performance with [Tania Bruguera](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tania_Bruguera) During the 2000s and 2010s, artists such as [Pussy Riot](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pussy_Riot), [Tania Bruguera](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tania_Bruguera), and Petr Pavlensky have been judged for diverse artistic actions. On February 21, 2012, as a part of their protest against the re-election of Vladímir Putin, various women of the artistic collective Pussy Riot entered the [Cathedral of Christ the Saviour](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathedral_of_Christ_the_Saviour) of Moscow of the [Russian Orthodox Church](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Orthodox_Church). They made the sign of the cross, bowed before the shrine, and started to interpret a performance compound by a song and a dance under the motto \"Virgin Mary, put Putin Away\". On March 3, they were detained.[^\]^](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Performance_art#cite_note-215) On March 3, 2012, [Maria Alyokhina](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Alyokhina) and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Pussy Riot members, were arrested by the Russian authorities and accused of vandalism. At first, they both denied being members of the group and started a hunger strike for being incarcerated and taken apart from their children until the trials began in April. On March 16 another woman, Yekaterina Samutsévitch, who had been previously interrogated as a witness, was arrested and accused as well. On July 5, formal charges against the group and a 2800-page accusation were filed. That same day they were notified that they had until July 9 to prepare their defense. In reply, they announced a hunger strike, pleading that two days was an inappropriate time frame to prepare their defense. On July 21, the court extended their preventive prison to last six more months. The three detained members were recognized as political prisoners by the Union of Solidarity with Political Prisoners. [Amnesty International](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amnesty_International) considers them to be prisoners of conscience for \"the severity of the response of the Russian authorities\". Since 2012, artist [Abel Azcona](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abel_Azcona) has been prosecuted for some of his works. The demand that gained the most repercussion was the one carried out by the [Archbishopric](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archbishopric) of [Pamplona](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pamplona) and Tudela, in representation of the [Catholic Church](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Church). The Church demanded Azcona for desecration and blasphemy crimes, hate crime and attack against the religious freedom and feelings for his work **[*Amen or The Pederasty*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amen_or_The_Pederasty)[.]** In 2016, Azcona was denounced for extolling terrorism for his exhibition *Natura Morta*, in which the artist recreated situations of violence, historical memory, terrorism or war conflicts through performance and hyperrealistic sculptures and installations. In December 2014 [Tania Bruguera](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tania_Bruguera) was detained in [La Habana](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Habana) to prevent her from carrying out new reivindicative works. Her performance art pieces have earned her harsh critiques, and she has been accused of promoting resistance and public disturbances. In December 2015 and January 2016, Bruguera was detained for organizing a public performance in the plaza de la Revolución of La Habana. She was detained along with other Cuban artists, activists and reporters who took part in the campaign *Yo También Exijo*, which was created after the declarations of Raúl Castro and Barack Obama in favor of restoring their diplomatic relationship. During the performance *El Susurro de Tatlin \#6* she set microphones and talkers in the Plaza de la Revolución so the Cubans could express their feelings regarding the new political climate. The event had great repercussion in international media, including a presentation of *El Susurro de Tatlin \#6* in Times Square, and an action in which various artists and intellectuals expressed themselves in favour of the liberation of Bruguera by sending an open letter to Raúl Castro signed by thousands of people around the world asking for the return of her passport and claiming criminal injustice, as she only gave a microphone to the people so they could give their opinion. In November 2015 and October 2017 Petr Pavlensky was arrested for carrying out a radical performance art piece in which he set on fire the entry of the Lubyanka Building, headquarters of the Federal Security Service of Russia, and a branch office of the Bank of France. On both occasions he sprayed the main entrance with gasoline; in the second performance he sprayed the inside as well, and ignited it with a lighter. The doors of the building were partially burnt. Both times Pavlenski was arrested without resistance and accused of debauchery. A few hours after the actions, several political and artistic reivindicative videos appeared on the internet. ### Institutionalization of performance art / performance collecting processes Since the 2000s, big museums, institutions and collections have supported performance art. Since January 2003, [Tate Modern](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tate_Modern) in London has had a curated programme of live art and performance. With exhibitions by artists such as [Tania Bruguera](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tania_Bruguera) or [Anne Imhof](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Imhof). In 2012 The Tanks at [Tate Modern](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tate_Modern) were opened: the first dedicated spaces for performance, film and installation in a major modern and contemporary art museum. The [Museum of Modern Art](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museum_of_Modern_Art) held a major retrospective and performance recreation of [Marina Abramović](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marina_Abramovi%C4%87)\'s work, the biggest exhibition of performance art in MoMA\'s history, from March 14 to 31, 2010.The exhibition consisted of more than twenty pieces by the artist, most of them from the years 1960--1980. Many of them were re-activated by other young artists of multiple nationalities selected for the show. In parallel to the exhibition, Abramovic performed *The Artist is Present*, a 726-hour and 30-minute static, silent piece, in which she sat immobile in the museum\'s atrium, while spectators were invited to take turns sitting opposite her. The work is an updated reproduction of one of the pieces from 1970, shown in the exhibition, where Abramovic stayed for full days next to Ulay, who was her sentimental companion. The performance attracted celebrities such as Björk, Orlando Bloom and [James Franco](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Franco) who participated and received media coverage. Against the background of the institutionalisation of performance, the Bruxelles-based initiative A Performance Affair and the London-based format Performance Exchange inquire about the collectability of performance works. With The Non-fungible Body?, the Austrian museum and culture centre [OÖLKG/OK](https://www.ooekultur.at/event-detail/performance-festival-the-non-fungible-body?expired&fbclid=IwAR2-U8j6DMO50ByKptigw2mSRNce_mx-ERd4OJ0NbKTp7r-p1-P4kh-3HGk) reflects upon recent developments in institutionalizing performance through a discursive festival format that was presented for the first time in June 2022.