Performance art is a genre that presents live art, and usually refers to conceptual art that conveys content through dramatic interaction, rather than just focusing on traditional performances for entertainment purposes.
Origins
Western cultural theorists trace performance art to early 20th century avant-garde movements such as Russian Constructivism, Futurism and Dada. The Dada movement led the way with its unconventional poetry performances, often at the Cabaret Voltaire, by the likes of Richard Huelsenbeck and Tristan Tzara. However, the most significant wave of performance art occurred in the 1960s and 70s when Abstract Expressionism and Minimalism became less popular. The enthusiasm for live and innovative performances reflected this period's interest in moving past preconceptions that limited what could qualify as fine art.
Styles
Performance art was one of many disparate trends that developed as Abstract Expressionism and Minimalism faded. Its breadth and widespread usage, along with how each performance is a unique occurrence, makes it difficult to summarize performance art's characteristics. Performance art in the 1960s and 70s included "actions," body art, happenings, endurance-focused, and ritual-focused performances. "Cut Piece," an action performed by Yoko Ono in several venues, demonstrates the genre. Ono walked onstage and then knelt on the floor while audience members were encouraged to come onstage and cut off all of her clothing.
Happenings, a term coined by Allan Kaprow in 1958, require active participation from the spectators, and are unique, improvisational events that can take place in any venue. There is no structured beginning, middle, or end, and no hierarchy or distinction between the artist and the viewers. The viewers' reactions decide the art piece, making each happening a unique experience that cannot be replicated. Through happenings, the separations between life, art, artist, and audience all become blurred.
Argentine artist Marta Minujín in a 1965 happening
Reading the News, a happening in which the artist got into the Río de La Plata wrapped in newspapers.
The early works of Marina Abramović exemplify endurance-focused, ritual-based performances in which she explored issues of human determination, patience and bodily limits. In her first performance, Rhythm 10 (1973), Abramović explored ritual and gesture. Using twenty knives and two tape recorders, she played a Russian game in which she aimed rhythmic knife jabs between her splayed fingers. With this piece and as a performer, Abramović was exploring states of consciousness. Each time she cut herself, she picked up a new knife, began again, and recorded her results. After cutting herself twenty times, she replayed the tape, listening to the sounds she had made and repeating her previous movements. By replicating her mistakes, she was merging her past actions with the present moment. She explored her physical and mental limits by injuring herself, and then honored what she had done by repeating the gestures, encouraging the audience to think about what her ritual symbolized and what it meant to repeat the gestures after her ritual had already been performed.
Performance art seeks to demystify fine art by blurring the line between art and life. Because it can shift fluidly between venues, audiences, and styles, and is unattached to traditional forms, performance art thrives in times of social upheaval and political unrest, providing a public forum for discussion, experimentation and outrage. In the 1980s, performance art fell from favor following renewed interest in painting, however it came back to life in the 1990s in response to issues involving race, immigration, gay rights and AIDS. Since then, performance art has become increasingly accepted in mainstream culture, being shown in art museums and becoming a topic for scholarly research.
Marina Abramović, The Artist is Present, MOMA, 2010
The Artist Is Present is a 736-hour and 30-minute static, silent piece, in which Abramovic sits immobile while spectators are invited to take turns sitting opposite her, for as long as they want, while she maintains focused eye contact with them.