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131-542: The company's work was a fusion of text, music, visual and performance art . Impact Theatre Co-operative's major productions were: The core members of the company were: In an interview published in 1987, Russell Hoban , who collaborated with Impact on The Carrier Frequency , said he had responded to a question (from Fiction Magazine in 1983) about the best piece of fiction he had seen that year, by talking about Impact's No Weapons for Mourning . He said in part: "The distinction of No Weapons for Mourning has to do with

262-557: A dime store area of New York's Lower East Side , where he blurred the line between art and commerce by producing and selling brightly painted plaster replicas of hamburgers and cans of soda, dresses, underwear, and other everyday objects: "Museum in b[ourgeois] concept equals store in mine". Oldenburg was one of the most recognizable sculptors identified with postmodernism, a group that included Jeff Koons , Eva Hesse , Louise Bourgeois , Anish Kapoor , Damien Hirst , Rachel Whiteread , and Richard Serra . Postmodern theater emerged as

393-652: A "painter who has left the canvas to activate the real space and the lived time." Joan Jonas (born July 13, 1936) is an American visual artist and a pioneer of video 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 , 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

524-426: A 2011 museum exhibition, Postmodernism: Style and Subversion 1970–1990 : "Anything could be mixed and matched – or mashed up, as is said today – and anything was fair game for inspiration.” The composer Jonathan Kramer has written that avant-garde musical compositions (which some would consider modernist rather than postmodernist) "defy more than seduce the listener, and they extend by potentially unsettling means

655-439: 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

786-553: A Postmodern Literature . According to scholar David Herwitz, American writers such as John Barth (who had controversially declared that the novel was "exhausted" as a genre), Donald Barthelme , and Thomas Pynchon responded in various ways to the stylistic innovations of Finnegans Wake and the late work of Samuel Beckett . Postmodern literature often calls attention to issues regarding its own complicated connection to reality. The postmodern novel plays with language, twisted plots, multiple narrators, and unresolved endings, unsettling

917-474: A cause for aesthetic celebration. Their further influence on the conversation about postmodernism, however, would be largely mediated by French poststructuralism . ) If literature was at the center of the discussion in the 1970s, architecture was at the center in the 1980s. The architectural theorist Charles Jencks , in particular, connected the artistic avant-garde to social change in a way that captured attention outside of academia. Jenckes, much influenced by

1048-571: A commodity and declared themselves a sociological art movement. Fluxus was informally organized in 1962 by George Maciunas (1931–1978). This movement had representation in Europe, the United States and Japan. The Fluxus movement, mostly developed in North America and Europe under the stimulus of John Cage , did not see the avant-garde as a linguistic renovation, but it sought to make a different use of

1179-526: 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. One of the other movements that anticipated performance art was the Japanese movement Gutai , who made action art or happening . It emerged in 1955 in

1310-510: A departure from French Impressionism . Similarly, the first citation given by the Oxford English Dictionary is dated to 1916, describing Gus Mager as "one of the few 'post' modern painters whose style is convincing". Episcopal priest and cultural commentator J. M. Thompson, in a 1914 article, uses the term to describe changes in attitudes and beliefs in the critique of religion, writing, "the raison d'être of Post-Modernism

1441-434: 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 . Such performance may use

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1572-529: 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

1703-527: A matter of dispute. Various authors place its beginnings in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. In the mid-1970s, the American sociologist Daniel Bell provided a general account of the postmodern as an effectively nihilistic response to modernism's alleged assault on the Protestant work ethic and its rejection of what he upheld as traditional values. The ideals of modernity, per his diagnosis, were degraded to

1834-473: A meta-art which arose when strategies of the Minimalists were expanded to focus on site and context. As well as an aesthetic agenda, the work progressed from perceptions of the physical properties of the gallery to the social and political context, largely taking the form of permanent public sculpture in the last two decades of a highly prolific career, whose diversity could exasperate his critics. Yayoi Kusama

1965-465: A new literary form. Also in the arts, the term was first used in 1949 to describe a dissatisfaction with the modernist architectural movement known as the International Style . Although these early uses anticipate some of the concerns of the debate in the second part of the 20th century, there is little direct continuity in the discussion. Just when the new discussion begins, however, is also

2096-453: A perceptual phenomenon of our time. ... the performance, not realistic, but hyperreal, has a syntax of image and sound, speech and movement ... These young artists effectively demonstrate that the circuitry originates not with computers but with the human mind, and it is there for survival as well as annihilation." Though Impact Theatre Cooperative disbanded in 1986, its creations – especially The Carrier Frequency – continue to be important in

2227-683: A political dimension. One manifestation of postmodernism in fashion explored alternatives to conventional concepts of elegance. Rei Kawakubo ’s Spring/Summer 1997 collection featured "dresses asymmetrically padded with goose down, creating bumps in unexpected areas of the body". Issey Miyake ’s 1985 dreadlocks hat "offered an immediate, yet impermanent, ' multi-culti ' fashion experience". Vivienne Westwood took "an extremely polyglot approach", from early work with copies of 1950s clothes, to exploration of historic modes and cultural influences: her first runway show, "Pirate", merged British history, 18th- and 19th-century dress, and African textile design, with

2358-508: A prime example of postmodernism. The setting is a future dystopia where "replicants", enhanced android workers nearly indistinguishable from humans, are hunted down when they escape from their jobs. The film blurs boundaries between genres and cultures, and fuses disparate styles and periods: futuristic visuals "mingle with drab 1940s clothes and offices, punk rock hairstyles, pop Egyptian styles and oriental culture." The blending of film noir and science-fiction into tech noir illustrates

2489-593: A public action. Names to be highlighted are Willem de Kooning and Franz Kline , whose work include abstract and action painting. Nouveau réalisme 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 and painter Yves Klein , during the first collective exhibition in the Apollinaire Gallery in Milan. Nouveau réalisme was, along with Fluxus and other groups, one of

2620-427: A range of publications, including The New York Times , The Guardian , The Village Voice and The Nation . Carolee Schneemann was an American visual experimental artist , known for her multi-media works on the body, narrative, sexuality and 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

2751-525: A rap and ethnic music soundtrack. Postmodern film aims to subvert the mainstream conventions of narrative structure and characterization , and to test the audience's suspension of disbelief . Typically, such films also break down the cultural divide between high and low art and often upend typical portrayals of gender , race , class , genre , and time with the goal of creating something that does not abide by traditional narrative expression. Certain key characteristics are used to separate

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2882-420: A reaction against modernist theater. Most postmodern productions are centered on highlighting the fallibility of definite truth, instead encouraging the audience to reach their own individual understanding. Essentially, thus, postmodern theater raises questions rather than attempting to supply answers. In the 1970s, a disparate group of French theorists – often grouped together as "poststructuralists" – developed

3013-428: 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

3144-432: 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

3275-545: Is Wall piece for orchestra (1962). Joseph Beuys was a German Fluxus, happening , performance artist, painter, sculptor, medallist and 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

3406-463: Is "diffuse, fragmentary, [and] multi-dimensional". Critics have described it as "an exasperating term" and claim that its indefinability is "a truism". Put otherwise, postmodernism is "several things at once". It has no single definition, and the term does not name any single unified phenomenon, but rather many diverse phenomena: "postmodernisms rather than one postmodernism". Although postmodernisms are generally united in their effort to transcend

3537-452: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Performance art 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 context in an interdisciplinary mode. Also known as artistic action , it has been developed through

3668-459: Is a Japanese artist who, throughout her career, has worked with a great variety of media including:sculpture, installation, painting, performance, film, fashion, poetry, fiction, and other arts; the majority of them exhibited her interest in psychedelia, repetition and patterns. Kusama is a pioneer of the pop art, minimalism and feminist art movements and influenced her coetaneous, Andy Warhol and Claes Oldenburg . She has been acknowledged as one of

3799-513: Is a bore". The term "postmodern dance" is most strongly associated with the Judson Dance Theater located in New York's Greenwich Village during the 1960s and 1970s. Arguably its most important principle is taken from the composer John Cage 's efforts to break down the distinction between art and life. The Judson dancers "[stripped] dance of its theatrical conventions such as virtuoso technique, fanciful costumes, complex storylines, and

3930-481: 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 lived silently for twelve days without food. 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. In

4061-480: Is an artist and United States activist. She is one of the main African-American exponents of feminism and 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 have appeared in

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4192-509: Is closely linked with the writings of critic-turned-architect Charles Jencks , beginning with lectures in the early 1970s and his essay "The Rise of Post-Modern Architecture" from 1975. His magnum opus , however, is the book The Language of Post-Modern Architecture , first published in 1977, and since running to seven editions (in which he famously wrote: "Modern architecture died in St. Louis, Missouri, on 15 July 1972 at 3:32 p.m. (or thereabouts) when

4323-505: Is considered to have influenced artists including Laurie Anderson , Karen Finley , Bruce Nauman , and Tracey Emin , among others. Acconci was initially interested in radical poetry, but by the late 1960s, he began creating Situationist -influenced performances in the street or for small audiences that explored the body and public space. Two of his most famous pieces were Following Piece (1969), in which he selected random passersby on New York City streets and followed them for as long as he

4454-478: Is linked to the happenings and "events" of the Fluxus movement, Viennese Actionism , body art and 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

4585-462: Is the Swiss Army knife of critical concepts. It’s definitionally overloaded, and it can do almost any job you need done." From an opposing perspective, media theorist Dick Hebdige criticized the vagueness of the term, enumerating a long list of otherwise unrelated concepts that people have designated as postmodernism, from "the décor of a room" or "a 'scratch' video", to fear of nuclear armageddon and

4716-746: Is thought that the Dada movement was founded in the ten-meter-square locale. Moreover, Surrealists, whose movement descended directly from Dadaism, used to meet in the Cabaret. On its brief existence—barely six months, closing the summer of 1916—the Dadaist Manifesto was read and it held the first Dada actions, performances, and hybrid poetry, plastic art, music and repetitive action presentations. Founders such as Richard Huelsenbeck , Marcel Janco , Tristan Tzara , Sophie Taeuber-Arp and Jean Arp participated in provocative and scandalous events that were fundamental and

4847-515: Is to escape from the double-mindedness of modernism by being thorough in its criticism by extending it to religion as well as theology, to Catholic feeling as well as to Catholic tradition". In 1926, Bernard Iddings Bell , president of St. Stephen's College and also an Episcopal priest, published Postmodernism and Other Essays , which marks the first use of the term to describe an historical period following modernity. The essay criticizes lingering socio-cultural norms, attitudes, and practices of

4978-447: 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 dates back to futurist productions and cabarets from

5109-500: The Enlightenment . It is also critical of a purported cultural shift away from traditional Christian beliefs. The term "postmodernity" was first used in an academic historical context as a general concept for a movement by Arnold J. Toynbee in a 1939 essay, which states that "Our own Post-Modern Age has been inaugurated by the general war of 1914–1918". In 1942, the literary critic and author H. R. Hays describes postmodernism as

5240-535: The Viennese Actionists and neo-Dadaists , prefer to use the terms "live art", "action art", "actions", "intervention" (see art intervention ) or "manoeuvre" to describe their performing activities. As genres of performance art appear body art , fluxus-performance, happening , action poetry , and intermedia . Performance art is a form of expression that was born as an alternative artistic manifestation. The discipline emerged in 1916 parallel to dadaism, under

5371-409: The modernist movement . Even here, however, there continued to be disagreement about such basic issues as whether postmodernism is a break with modernism, a renewal and intensification of modernism, or even, both at once, a rejection and a radicalization of its historical predecessor. While discussions in the 1970s were dominated by literary criticism, these were supplanted by architectural theory in

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5502-468: The "implosion of meaning", and stated that anything that could signify all of those things was "a buzzword". All this notwithstanding, scholar Hans Bertens offers the following: If there is a common denominator to all these postmodernisms, it is that of a crisis in representation: a deeply felt loss of faith in our ability to represent the real, in the widest sense. No matter whether they are aesthestic [sic], epistemological, moral, or political in nature,

5633-536: The 1910s. Art critic and performance artist John Perreault credits Marjorie Strider with the invention of the term in 1969. The main pioneers of performance art include Carolee Schneemann , Marina Abramović , Ana Mendieta , Chris Burden , Hermann Nitsch , Joseph Beuys , Nam June Paik , Tehching Hsieh , Yves Klein and Vito Acconci . Some of the main exponents more recently are Tania Bruguera , Abel Azcona , Regina José Galindo , Marta Minujín , Melati Suryodarmo and Petr Pavlensky . The discipline

5764-546: 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 , it was one of the initiating processes of performance art, along with abstract expressionism. Jackson Pollock is the action painter par excellence, who carried out many of his actions live. In Europe Yves Klein did his Anthropométries using (female) bodies to paint canvasses as

5895-460: 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

6026-451: The 1950s. Their stance against modernist poetry – and Olson's Heideggerian orientation – were influential in the identification of postmodernism as a polemical position opposed to the rationalist values championed by the Enlightenment project. During the 1960s, this affirmative use gave way to a pejorative use by the New Left , who used it to describe a waning commitment among youth to

6157-581: The 1950s–1960s. In opposition to modernism's alleged self-seriousness, postmodernism is characterized by its playful use of eclectic styles and performative irony , among other features. Critics claim it supplants moral , political , and aesthetic ideals with mere style and spectacle. In the 1990s, "postmodernism" came to denote a general – and, in general, celebratory – response to cultural pluralism . Proponents align themselves with feminism , multiculturalism , and postcolonialism . Building upon poststructural theory, postmodern thought defined itself by

6288-440: The 1960s, Jonas studied with the choreographer Trisha Brown for two years. Jonas also worked with choreographers Yvonne Rainer and Steve Paxton. 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

6419-460: The 1980s. Some of these conversations made use of French poststructuralist thought, but only after these innovations and critical discourse in the arts did postmodernism emerge as a philosophical term in its own right. According to Hans Bertens and Perry Anderson , the Black Mountain poets Charles Olson and Robert Creeley first introduced the term "postmodern" in its current sense during

6550-654: The 20th century, who worked with various mediums and techniques such as painting, sculpture, installation , decollage , video art , happening and fluxus . Vito Acconci was an influential American performance, video and installation artist , whose diverse practice eventually included sculpture, architectural design, and landscape design. His foundational performance and video art was characterized by "existential unease," exhibitionism, discomfort, transgression and provocation, as well as wit and audacity, and often involved crossing boundaries such as public–private, consensual–nonconsensual, and real world–art world. His work

6681-670: The 20th century. He studied music and art history in the University of Tokyo. Later, in 1956, he traveled to Germany, where he studied Music Theory in Munich, then continued in Cologne in the Freiburg conservatory. While studying in Germany, Paik met the composers Karlheinz Stockhausen and John Cage and the conceptual artists Sharon Grace as well as George Maciunas , Joseph Beuys and Wolf Vostell and

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6812-498: The American architect Robert Venturi , celebrated a plurality of forms and encourages participation and active engagement with the local context of the built environment. He presented this as in opposition to the "authoritarian style" of International Modernism. In the 1970s, postmodern criticism increasingly came to incorporate poststructuralist theory, particularly the deconstructive approach to texts most strongly associated with Jacques Derrida , who attempted to demonstrate that

6943-510: The Black Mountain poets an exemplary instance of the new postmodern type, Hassan celebrates its Nietzschean playfulness and cheerfully anarchic spirit, which he sets off against the high seriousness of modernism. (Yet, from another perspective, Friedrich Nietzsche 's attack on Western philosophy and Martin Heidegger 's critique of metaphysics posed deep theoretical problems not necessarily

7074-763: 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 (1980), the Hayward Gallery in London (1987), and the Tate Modern (2007). They have participated in

7205-406: The British magazine, "Design". A characteristic of postmodern graphic design is that "retro, techno, punk, grunge, beach, parody, and pastiche were all conspicuous trends. Each had its own sites and venues, detractors and advocates." In 1971, the American literary theorist Ihab Hassan made "postmodernism" popular in literary studies with his influential book, The Dismemberment of Orpheus: Toward

7336-588: 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. In

7467-433: 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 , 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

7598-923: 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 in the United States. Throughout its history it has been led by its founders: actress Judith Malina , who had studied theatre with Erwin Piscator , with whom she studied Bertolt Brecht 's and Meyerhold 's theory; and painter and poet Julian Beck . After Beck's death in 1985,

7729-586: The Venice Biennale. In 1986 they won the Turner Prize. 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 in California since the 1970s. In one of his best known works, Five days in

7860-488: The Western world. The Industrial Revolution , urbanization , secularization , technological advances , two world wars , and globalization deeply disrupted the social order. Modernism emerged in the late 1800s, seeking to redefine fundamental truths and values through a radical rethinking of traditional ideas and forms across many fields. Postmodernism emerged in the mid-20th century with a skeptical perspective that questioned

7991-414: The arm with a small-caliber rifle. A prolific artist, Burden created many well-known installations, public artworks and sculptures before his death in 2015. Burden began to work in performance art in the early 1970s. He made a series of controversial performances in which the idea of personal danger as artistic expression was central. His first significant performance work, Five Day Locker Piece (1971),

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8122-491: The artist's body in the creative process, it acquires similarities with the beginnings of performance art. In the 1960s, with the purpose of evolving the generalized idea of art and with similar principles of those originary from Cabaret Voltaire or Futurism , a variety of new works, concepts and a growing number of artists led to new kinds of performance art. Movements clearly differentiated from Viennese Actionism , avant garde performance art in New York City, process art ,

8253-441: The arts in general, it instead turned to address the more general problems posed to society in general by a new proliferation of cultures and forms. It is during this period that it also came to be associated with postcolonialism and identity politics . Around this time, postmodernism also began to be conceived in popular culture as a general "philosophical disposition" associated with a loose sort of relativism . In this sense,

8384-433: 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

8515-713: 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 ; involve ritualised elements (e.g. Shaun Caton ); or borrow elements of any performing arts such as dance, music, and circus . Performance art can also involve intersection with architecture, and may intertwine with religious practice and with theology . Some artists, e.g.

8646-412: The basis of the foundation for the anarchist movement called Dada. Dadaism was born with the intention of destroying any system or established norm in the art world. It is an anti-art movement, anti-literary and anti-poetry, that questioned the existence of art, literature and poetry itself. Not only was it a way of creating, but of living; it created a whole new ideology. It was against eternal beauty,

8777-559: The body conceptually and critically emerged. Postmodernist Postmodernism is a term used to refer to a variety of artistic , cultural , and philosophical movements that claim to mark a break from modernism . They have in common the conviction that it is no longer possible to rely upon previous ways of depicting the world. Still, there is disagreement among experts about its more precise meaning even within narrow contexts. The term began to acquire its current range of meanings in literary criticism and architectural theory during

8908-432: The chaos protagonized their breaking actions with traditional artistic form. Cabaret Voltaire closed in 1916, but was revived in the 21st century. 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

9039-500: 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

9170-439: 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 traditions in Western culture. From about

9301-464: The conventional idea of the novel as faithfully reflecting the world. In Postmodernist Fiction (1987), Brian McHale details the shift from modernism to postmodernism, arguing that postmodern works developed out of modernism, moving from concern with what is there (" ontological dominant") to concern with how we can know it's there (" epistemological dominant"). McHale's "What Was Postmodernism?" (2007) follows Raymond Federman 's lead in now using

9432-420: 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 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

9563-412: The daily, many times with small actions or performances. John Cage was an American composer, music theorist , artist, and philosopher. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music , electroacoustic music , and non-standard use of musical instruments , Cage was one of the leading figures of the post-war avant-garde . Critics have lauded him as one of the most influential composers of the 20th century. He

9694-622: The deconstruction of both cinema and genre. The film can also be seen as an example of major studios using the "mystique and cachet of the term 'postmodern' as a sales pitch", resulting in Hollywood movies that "demonstrate all the postmodern characteristics". From another perspective, "critical responses to Blade Runner fall on either side of a modern/postmodern line" – critical analysis from "modernist" and "postmodernist" approaches produce entirely different interpretations. Early mention of postmodernism as an element of graphic design appeared in

9825-528: The early 1960s, New York City harbored many movements, events and interests regarding performance art. Amongst others, Andy Warhol began creating films and videos, and mid decade he sponsored The Velvet Underground and staged events and performative actions in New York, such as the Exploding Plastic Inevitable (1966), that included live rock music, explosive lights and films. Indirectly influential for art-world performance, particularly in

9956-402: The early 1970s the use of video format by performance artists was consolidated. Some exhibitions by Joan Jonas and 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

10087-405: The early seventies. Joan Jonas started to include video in her experimental performances in 1972, while 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

10218-455: The eternity of principles, the laws of logic, the immobility of thought and clearly against anything universal. It promoted change, spontaneity, immediacy, contradiction, randomness and the defense of chaos against the order and imperfection against perfection, ideas similar to those of performance art. They stood for provocation, anti-art protest and scandal, through ways of expression many times satirical and ironic. The absurd or lack of value and

10349-473: The evolution of The Living Theatre or happening , but most of all the consolidation of the pioneers of performance art. The term Viennese Actionism ( Wiener Aktionismus ) comprehends a brief and controversial art movement of the 20th century, which is remembered for the violence, grotesque and visual of their artworks. It is located in the Austrian vanguard of the 1960s, and it had the goal of bringing art to

10480-439: The ground of performance art, and is linked to Fluxus and Body Art. Amongst their main exponents are Günter Brus , Otto Muehl and Hermann Nitsch , who developed most of their actionist activities between 1960 and 1971. Hermann, pioneer of performance art, presented in 1962 his Theatre of Orgies and Mysteries (Orgien und Mysterien Theater). Marina Abramović participated as a performer in one of his performances in 1975. In

10611-513: The history of devised and physical theatre . Frances Babbage, writing about a symposium held in connection with Stan's Cafe 's recreation of The Carrier Frequency in 1999, said: "Many companies since have cited Impact as a major inspiration, with The Carrier Frequency in particular achieving almost mythic status", while Alison Oddey mentions The Carrier Frequency in her book on devised theatre , Devising Theatre: A Practical and Theoretical Handbook This British theatre–related article

10742-581: 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 of New York City exhibited a retrospective of his work from the 1940s to 1970. Nam June Paik was a South Korean performance artist, composer and video artist from the second half of

10873-516: The idea of a political concentration, with poetry and music-halls, which anticipated performance art. The 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 , founded in the United States by instructors of the original Bauhaus who were exiled by

11004-465: The infamous Pruitt–Igoe scheme, or rather several of its slab blocks, were given the final coup de grâce by dynamite." ). Jencks makes the point that postmodernism (like modernism) varies for each field of art, and that for architecture it is not just a reaction to modernism but what he terms double coding : "Double Coding: the combination of Modern techniques with something else (usually traditional building) in order for architecture to communicate with

11135-546: 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 predicated "anti-form", process and time over an objectual finished product. Wardrip-Fruin and 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

11266-414: The late 1960s, diverse land art artists such as Robert Smithson or Dennis Oppenheim created environmental pieces that preceded performance art in the 1970s. Works by conceptual artists from the early 1980s, such as Sol LeWitt , who made mural drawing into a performance act, were influenced by Yves Klein and other land art artists. Land art is a contemporary art movement in which the landscape and

11397-546: The late 1970s and ’80s." Media theorist Dick Hebdige , examining the " Road to Nowhere " (1985) music video, said the group "draw eclectically on a wide range of visual and aural sources to create a distinctive pastiche or hybrid 'house style' which they have used since their formation in the mid-1970s deliberately to stretch received (industrial) definitions of what rock/pop/video/Art/ performance/audience are", calling them "a properly postmodernist band." According to lead vocalist/guitarist/songwriter David Byrne , commenting for

11528-517: The late-20th century, avant-garde academics labelled American singer Madonna as the "personification of the postmodern" because "the postmodern condition is characterized by fragmentation, de-differentiation, pastiche, retrospection and anti-foundationalism", which they argued Madonna embodied. Christian writer Graham Cray also said that "Madonna is perhaps the most visible example of what is called post-modernism", and Martin Amis described her as "perhaps

11659-417: The level of consumer choice. This research project, however, was not taken up in a significant way by others until the mid-1980s when the work of Jean Baudrillard and Fredric Jameson , building upon art and literary criticism, reintroduced the term to sociology. Discussion about the postmodern in the second part of the 20th century was most articulate in areas with a large body of critical discourse around

11790-531: The lines between fine art and commercial design. His work, exemplified by the iconic Campbell's Soup Cans series during the 1960s, brought the postmodernist sensibility to mainstream attention. Criticism of postmodernist movements in the arts include objections to departure from beauty, the reliance on language for the art to have meaning, a lack of coherence or comprehensibility, deviation from clear structure, and consistent use of dark and negative themes. Scholarship regarding postmodernism and architecture

11921-454: The lines between life, Zen, performative art-making techniques and "events," in both pre-meditated and spontaneous ways. Process art is an artistic movement where the end product of art and craft , the objet d’art ( work of art / 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

12052-411: 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 , Fluxus escaped any attempt for a definition or categorization. As one of the movement's founders, Dick Higgins , stated: Fluxus started with

12183-563: The main artists who used video and performance, with notorious audiovisual installations, is the South Korean artist 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 '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

12314-429: The many avant garde tendencies of the 1960s. Pierre Restany created various performance art assemblies in the 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 (1959–62), Anthropométries (1960), and the photomontage Saut dans le vide . All his works have

12445-404: 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

12576-675: The mid-1960s into the 1970s, often derived from concepts of visual art, with respect to Antonin Artaud , Dada , the Situationists , Fluxus , installation art , and conceptual art , performance art tended to be defined as an 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

12707-547: The mid-1970s, behind the Iron Curtain, in major Eastern Europe cities such as Budapest , Kraków , Belgrade, Zagreb , 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

12838-440: The most important living artists to come out of Japan and a very relevant voice in avant garde art. In the 1970s, artists that had derived to works related to performance art evolved and consolidated themselves as artists with performance art as their main discipline, deriving into installations created through performance, video performance, or collective actions, or in the context of a socio-historical and political context. In

12969-403: The most postmodern personage on the planet". She was also suggested by literary critic Olivier Sécardin to epitomise postmodernism. Sculptor Claes Oldenberg , at the forefront of the pop art movement, declared in 1961: "I am for an art that is political-erotical-mystical … I am for an art that embroils itself with everyday crap and still comes out on top." That year, he opened The Store in

13100-685: 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 , dancer, writer and French artist. The futurists spread their theories through encounters, meetings and conferences in public spaces, that got close to

13231-422: The notion of universal truths and reshaped modernist approaches by embracing the complexity and contradictions of modern life. The term "postmodernism" first appeared in print in 1870, but it only began to enter circulation with its current range of meanings in the 1950s—60s. The term "postmodern" was first used in 1870 by the artist John Watkins Chapman, who described "a Postmodern style of painting" as

13362-409: The past tense when discussing postmodernism. Others argue that postmodernism in literature utilizes compositional and semantic practices such as inclusivity, intentional indiscrimination, nonselection, and "logical impossibility." Music critic Andy Cush described Talking Heads as "New York art-punks" whose "blend of nervy postmodernism and undeniable groove made them one of the defining rock bands of

13493-611: 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

13624-482: The perceived limits of modernism, "modernism" also means different things to different critics in various arts. Further, there are outliers on even this basic stance; for instance, literary critic William Spanos conceives postmodernism, not in period terms, but in terms of a certain kind of literary imagination so that pre-modern texts such as Euripides ' Orestes or Cervantes ' Don Quixote count as postmodern. According to scholar Louis Menand , "Postmodernism

13755-656: The performance 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

13886-477: The political ideals socialism and communism . The literary critic Irving Howe , for instance, denounced postmodern literature for being content to merely reflect, rather than actively attempt to refashion, what he saw as the "increasingly shapeless" character of contemporary society. In the 1970s, this changed again, largely under the influence of the literary critic Ihab Hassan 's large-scale survey of works that he said could no longer be called modern. Taking

14017-407: The postmodern from modernist cinema and traditional narrative film. One is an extensive use of homage or pastiche , imitating the style or character of other artistic works. A second is meta-reference or self-reference, highlighting the relation of the image to other images in media and not to any kind of external reality. Viewers are reminded that the film itself is only a film, perhaps through

14148-475: The prevailing narratives of beauty and objectivity common to Modernism. Author on postmodernism, Dominic Strinati, has noted, it is also important "to include in this category the so-called ' art rock ' musical innovations and mixing of styles associated with groups like Talking Heads , and performers like Laurie Anderson , together with the self-conscious 'reinvention of disco ' by the Pet Shop Boys ". In

14279-412: The public and a concerned minority, usually other architects." In their book, "Revisiting Postmodernism", Terry Farrell and Adam Furman argue that postmodernism brought a more joyous and sensual experience to the culture, particularly in architecture. For instance, in response to the modernist slogan of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe that "less is more", the postmodernist Robert Venturi rejoined that "less

14410-495: 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 , Al Hansen , Claes Oldenburg , Robert Whitman and Wolf Vostell : Theater is in the Street (Paris, 1958). The works by performance artists after 1968 showed many times influences from the political and cultural situation that year. Barbara T. Smith with Ritual Meal (1969)

14541-484: The region of Kansai ( Kyōto , Ōsaka , Kōbe ). The main participants were Jirō Yoshihara , Sadamasa Motonaga, Shozo Shimamoto, Saburō Murakami, Katsuō Shiraga, Seichi Sato, Akira Ganayama and Atsuko Tanaka. 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 and Wolf Vostell . In

14672-503: The rejection of any single, foundational historical narrative. This called into question the legitimacy of the Enlightenment account of progress and rationality. Critics allege that its premises lead to a nihilistic form of relativism . In this sense, it has become a term of abuse in popular culture . "Postmodernism" is "a highly contested term", referring to "a particularly unstable concept", that "names many different kinds of cultural objects and phenomena in many different ways". It

14803-547: The representations that we used to rely on can no longer be taken for granted. In practical terms, postmodernisms share an attitude of skepticism towards grand explanations and established ways of doing things. In art, literature, and architecture, this attitude blurs boundaries between styles and genres, and encourages freely mixing elements, challenging traditional distinctions like high art versus popular art . In science, it emphasizes multiple ways of seeing things, and how our cultural and personal backgrounds shape how we see

14934-449: The starting process of performance art. The Cabaret Voltaire was founded in Zürich , Switzerland by the couple Hugo Ball and Emmy Hennings for artistic and political purposes, and was a place where new tendencies were explored. Located on the upper floor of a theater, whose exhibitions they mocked in their shows, the works interpreted in the cabaret were avant garde and experimental. It

15065-808: The term also started to appear as a "casual term of abuse" in non-academic contexts. Others identified it as an aesthetic "lifestyle" of eclecticism and playful self-irony. Postmodernism encompasses a wide range of artistic movements and styles. In visual arts, pop art , conceptual art , feminist art , video art , minimalism , and neo-expressionism are among the approaches recognized as postmodern. The label extends to diverse musical genres and artists: John Cage , Madonna , and punk rock all meet postmodern definitions. Literature, film, architecture, theater, fashion, dance, and many other creative disciplines saw postmodern expression. As an example, Andy Warhol 's pop art across multiple mediums challenged traditional distinctions between high and low culture, and blurred

15196-461: The traditional stage [and] drew on everyday movements (sitting, walking, kneeling, and other gestures) to create their pieces, often performing them in ordinary spaces." This was developed in particular by the American dancer and choreographer Merce Cunningham , Cage's partner. In the 1980s and 1990s, dance began to incorporate other typically postmodern features such as the mixing of genres, challenging high–low cultural distinctions, and incorporating

15327-475: The umbrella of conceptual art. The movement was led by Tristan Tzara , one of the pioneers of Dada . Western culture theorists have set the origins of performance art in the beginnings of the 20th century, along with constructivism , 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 , could also be identified as part of

15458-469: The use of intertextuality , in which the film's characters reference other works of fiction. A third characteristic is stories that unfold out of chronological order , deconstructing or fragmenting time to emphasize the constructed nature of film. Another common element is a bridging of the gap between highbrow and lowbrow , . Contradictions of all sorts are crucial to postmodernism. Ridley Scott 's Blade Runner (1982) has been widely studied as

15589-407: The very idea of what music is." In the 1960s, composers such as Terry Riley , Henryk Górecki , Bradley Joseph , John Adams , Steve Reich , Philip Glass , Michael Nyman , and Lou Harrison reacted to the perceived elitism and dissonant sound of atonal academic modernism by producing music with simple textures and relatively consonant harmonies, whilst others, most notably John Cage challenged

15720-422: The whole foundationalist approach to language and knowledge was untenable and misguided. It is during this period that postmodernism came to be particularly equated with a kind of anti-representational self-reflexivity. In the 1980s, some critics began to take an interest in the work of Michel Foucault . This introduced a political concern about social power-relations into discussions about postmodernism. This

15851-435: 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 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 , introduced the daily into art, whereas Fluxus dissolved art into

15982-576: The world, making it impossible to be completely objective . In philosophy, education, history, politics, and many other fields, it encourages critical re-examination of established institutions and social norms, embracing diversity and breaking down disciplinary boundaries. Though these ideas weren't strictly new, postmodernism amplified them, using an often playful, at times deeply critical, attitude of pervasive skepticism to turn them into defining features. Two broad cultural movements, modernism and postmodernism, emerged in response to profound changes in

16113-436: 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 . 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

16244-472: 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

16375-482: Was able, and Seedbed (1972), in which he claimed that he masturbated while under a temporary floor at the Sonnabend Gallery , as visitors walked above and heard him speaking. Chris Burden was an American artist working in performance , sculpture and installation art . Burden became known in the 1970s for his performance art works, including Shoot (1971), in which he arranged for a friend to shoot him in

16506-479: Was also instrumental in the development of 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 can be seen as an important link between the Abstract Expressionists , Neo- Dada artists like Robert Rauschenberg and Ray Johnson , and Fluxus. Dienes inspired all these artists to blur

16637-468: Was also the beginning of the affiliation of postmodernism with feminism and multiculturalism . The art critic Craig Owens , in particular, not only made the connection to feminism explicit, but went so far as to claim feminism for postmodernism wholesale, a broad claim resisted by even many sympathetic feminists such as Nancy Fraser and Linda Nicholson. Although postmodern criticism and thought drew on philosophical ideas from early on, "postmodernism"

16768-553: Was at the vanguard of body and scenic feminist art in the seventies, which included, amongst others, Carolee Schneemann and Joan Jonas . These, along with Yoko Ono , Joseph Beuys , Nam June Paik , Wolf Vostell , Allan Kaprow , Vito Acconci , Chris Burden and Dennis Oppenheim were pioneers in the relationship between body art and performance art, as well as the Zaj collective in Spain with Esther Ferrer and Juan Hidalgo . Barbara Smith

16899-403: Was created for his master's thesis at the University of California, Irvine, and involved his being locked in a locker for five days. Dennis Oppenheim was an American conceptual artist , performance artist, earth artist , sculptor and photographer. Dennis Oppenheim's early artistic practice is an epistemological questioning about the nature of art, the making of art and the definition of art:

17030-461: Was from 1962 on, a member of the experimental art movement Fluxus . Nam June Paik then began participating in the Neo-Dada art movement, known as Fluxus , which was inspired by the composer John Cage and his use of everyday sounds and noises in his music. He was mates with Yoko Ono as a member of Fluxus . Wolf Vostell was a German artist, one of the most representative of the second half of

17161-468: Was only introduced to the expressly philosophical lexicon by Jean-François Lyotard in his 1979 The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge . This work served as a catalyst for many of the subsequent intellectual debates around the term. By the 1990s, postmodernism had become increasingly identified with critical and philosophical discourse directly about postmodernity or the postmodern idiom itself. No longer centered on any particular art or even

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