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123-673: The Baxter Theatre Centre is a performing arts complex in Rondebosch , a suburb of Cape Town , South Africa . The Baxter , as it is often known, is part of the University of Cape Town ; it is also the second largest performing arts complex in Cape Town, after the Artscape Theatre Centre . The Baxter opened on 1 August 1977. It was named after former Mayor of Cape Town William Duncan Baxter , who left money to

246-657: 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

369-439: 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

492-498: A combination of speech, gesture, music, dance, sound, and spectacle. Any one or more of these elements is considered performing arts. In addition to the standard narrative dialogue style of plays, theater takes such forms as plays, musicals, opera, ballet, illusion , mime , classical Indian dance , kabuki , mummers' plays , improvisational theatre , comedy, pantomime , and non-conventional or contemporary forms like postmodern theatre , postdramatic theatre , or performance art. In

615-589: 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

738-531: 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

861-434: 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

984-690: A local temple and using puppetry for religious plays. At the ancient capital Angkor Wat , stories from the Indian epics Ramayana and Mahabharata have been carved on the walls of temples and palaces. Similar reliefs are found at Borobudur in Indonesia. In the Philippines , the famous epic poem Ibong Adarna , originally titled "Korido at Buhay na Pinagdaanan ng Tatlong Prinsipeng Magkakapatid na anak nina Haring Fernando at Reyna Valeriana sa Kahariang Berbania" (English: " Corrido and Life Lived by

1107-538: 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

1230-479: 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

1353-606: 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

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1476-427: 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

1599-428: 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

1722-555: A special part entitled " Kay Selya " (English: "For Celia") specially dedicated for Rivera. The Philippine 's national hero, José Rizal who is also a novelist, created the two famous poems in the Philippines, Noli Me Tángere ( Latin for "Touch me not", with an acute accent added on the final word in accordance with Spanish orthography ) (1887) that describes perceived inequities of the Spanish Catholic friars and

1845-583: 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 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

1968-432: 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

2091-415: A theoretical treatise on Indian performing arts, including theatre, dance, acting, and music, which has been compared to Aristotle 's Poetics . Bharata is often known as the father of Indian theatrical arts. His Natya Shastra seems to be the first attempt to develop the technique or rather art, of drama in a systematic manner. The Natya Shastra tells us not only what is to be portrayed in a drama, but how

2214-426: A very colorful shadow. The thin rods that controlled their movements were attached to a leather collar at the neck of the puppet. The rods ran parallel to the bodies of the puppet then turned at a ninety-degree angle to connect to the neck. While these rods were visible when the shadow was cast, they laid outside the shadow of the puppet; thus, they did not interfere with the appearance of the figure. The rods attached at

2337-554: 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

2460-459: 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

2583-590: Is a West African oral historian who uses storytelling, poetry, and music to express the genealogies and historical narratives of the tribes they represent, often playing instruments such as the kora . This ancient profession is upheld in a position of community leadership. The most popular forms of theater in the medieval Islamic world were puppet theatre (which included hand puppets, shadow plays and marionette productions) and live passion plays known as ta'ziya , where actors re-enact episodes from Muslim history . In particular, Shia Islamic plays revolved around

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2706-443: Is a powerful impulse, but the art of dance is that impulse channeled by skillful performers into something that becomes intensely expressive and that may delight spectators who feel no wish to dance themselves. These two concepts of the art of dance—dance as a powerful impulse and dance as a skillfully choreographed art practiced largely by a professional few—are the two most important connecting ideas running through any consideration of

2829-422: Is also a specialized form of fine art, in which the artists perform their work live to an audience. This is called performance art . Most performance art also involves some form of plastic art , perhaps in the creation of props . Dance was often referred to as a plastic art during the modern dance era. Theatre is the branch of performing arts concerned with acting out stories in front of an audience, using

2952-487: 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

3075-488: 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

3198-505: 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

3321-405: Is divided into genres such as folk , jazz , hip hop , pop, and rock, etc. As an art form, music can occur in live or recorded formats, and can be planned or improvised. As music is a protean art, it easily coordinates with words for songs as physical movements do in dance. Moreover, it has a capability of shaping human behaviors as it impacts our emotions. Starting in the 6th century BC,

3444-559: Is extremely complex. Konstantin Stanislavski 's "System" revolutionized acting in the early 20th century, and continues to have a major influence on actors of stage and screen to the current day. Both impressionism and modern realism were introduced to the stage during this period. With the invention of the motion picture in the late 19th century by Thomas Edison and the growth of the motion picture industry in Hollywood in

3567-429: Is one another modern form of dance that emerged in 19th- 20th century with the name of free dance style. This form of dance was structured to create a harmonious personality which included features such as physical and spiritual freedom. Isadora Duncan was the first female dancer who argued about "woman of future" and developed novel vector of choreography using Nietzsche 's idea of "supreme mind in free mind". Dance

3690-740: Is represented, no play has ever surpassed the tragedy known in the Mussulman world as that of Hasan and Husain ." Years later Peter Chelkowski, professor of Iranian and Islamic studies at NYU , chooses the same words for the beginning of his book 'Ta`ziyeh, ritual and drama in Iran'. Live secular plays were known as akhraja , recorded in medieval adab literature, though they were less common than puppetry and ta'ziya theater. In Iran there are other forms of theatrical events such as Naghali or Naqqāli (story telling), Ta'zieh , ٰRu-Howzi , Siah-Bazi , Parde-Khani , and Mareke giri . Prior to

3813-763: 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

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3936-405: 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 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

4059-420: The shaheed (martyrdom) of Ali 's sons Hasan ibn Ali and Husayn ibn Ali . It commonly refers to passion plays about the battle of Karbala and its prior and subsequent events. Sir Lewis Pelly begins the preface of his book about Ta'zieh maintaining that "If the success of a drama is to be measured by the effects which it produces upon the people for whom it is composed, or upon the audiences before whom it

4182-513: The Broadway musical became a phenomenon in the United States. Post-World War II performing arts were highlighted by the resurgence of both ballet and opera in the Western world. Postmodernism dominated the performing arts during the 1970s and the 1980s. Indigenous African performance traditions are rooted in ritual , storytelling, movement , and music . Performances were communal with

4305-587: The Classical period of performing art began in Greece , ushered in by the tragic poets such as Sophocles . These poets wrote plays which, in some cases, incorporated dance (see Euripides ). The Hellenistic period began the widespread use of comedy. However, by the 6th century AD, Western performing arts had been largely ended as the Dark Ages began. Between the 9th century and 14th century, performing art in

4428-646: The Elizabethan masque , featuring music, dance and elaborate costumes as well as professional theatrical companies in England. William Shakespeare 's plays in the late 16th century developed from this new class of professional performance. In 1597, the first opera, Dafne was performed and throughout the 17th century, opera would rapidly become the entertainment of choice for the aristocracy in most of Europe, and eventually for large numbers of people living in cities and towns throughout Europe. The introduction of

4551-635: The Shahnameh . These stories were often altered to bond with the atmosphere or mood of the audience. Folk theatre and dramatics can be traced to the religious ritualism of the Vedic peoples in the 2nd millennium BC . This folk theatre of the misty past was mixed with dance, food, ritualism, plus a depiction of events from daily life. The last element made it the origin of the classical theatre of later times. Many historians, notably D. D. Kosambi, Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya, Adya Rangacharaya, etc. have referred to

4674-824: The Shang dynasty ; they often involved music, clowning and acrobatic displays. The Tang dynasty is sometimes known as "The Age of 1000 Entertainments". During this era, Emperor Xuanzong formed an acting school known as the Children of the Pear Garden to produce a form of drama that was primarily musical. During the Han Dynasty, shadow puppetry first emerged as a recognized form of theatre in China. There were two distinct forms of shadow puppetry, Cantonese southern and Pekingese northern. The two styles were differentiated by

4797-544: 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

4920-520: The proscenium arch in Italy during the 17th century established the traditional theatre form that persists to this day. Meanwhile, in England, the Puritans forbade acting, bringing a halt to performing arts that lasted until 1660. After that, women began to appear in both French and English plays. The French introduced a formal dance instruction in the late 17th century. It is also during this time that

5043-546: 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

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5166-467: 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

5289-440: 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

5412-654: 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

5535-695: 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

5658-796: 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

5781-603: 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

5904-479: The Nico Malan from staging productions that challenged its views, they could not exert the same degree of control over The Baxter, which was protected by the university's academic freedom . The Baxter has three venues: The Baxter Theatre conducts workshops aimed at the youth and at benefitting previously disadvantaged communities. The Zabalaza Outreach program works towards developing community skills and hosts

6027-498: The Philippines. Florante at Laura is an " awit " or a poem consisting of 12-syllable quatrains with the full title "Pinagdaanang Buhay ni Florante at ni Laura sa Kahariang Albanya" (English: "The History of Florante and Laura in the Kingdom of Albania ") was written by Francisco Balagtas in 1838 during his imprisonment dedicated to his sweetheart Maria Asuncuion Rivera (nicknamed "M.A.R.", referenced to as "Selya"). The poem has

6150-580: The Three Princes, children of King Fernando and Queen Valeriana in the Kingdom of Berbania") from the 16th century was written by José de la Cruz during the Spanish era . Aside from theatrical performances, different films were produced by different film studios/ television productions. The first produced "Ang Ibong Adarna" film was produced by LVN Pictures , the biggest film studio in the history of

6273-433: 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

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6396-965: 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,

6519-551: The University of Cape Town specifically for the construction of a theatre centre. As well as improving the facilities available to the university's Drama Department, the Baxter also provided an alternative to the government-run Nico Malan Theatre Centre (now the Artscape Theatre Centre ) for the staging of large productions. This was particularly important before the end of apartheid ; while the Nationalist government could prevent

6642-605: 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

6765-575: The West was limited to religious historical enactments and morality plays , organized by the Church in celebration of holy days and other important events. In the 15th century performing arts, along with the arts in general, saw a revival as the Renaissance began in Italy and spread throughout Europe plays, some of which incorporated dance, which were performed and Domenico da Piacenza credited with

6888-813: The annual Baxter Zabalaza Theatre Festival which is a platform for previously disadvantaged theatre talent. This article about a specific theatre building is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article about a South African building or structure is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Performing arts Theatre , music, gymnastics, object manipulation , and other kinds of performances are present in all human cultures. The history of music and dance date to pre-historic times whereas circus skills date to at least Ancient Egypt . Many performing arts are performed professionally. Performance can be in purpose-built buildings, such as theatres and opera houses, on open air stages at festivals, on stages in tents such as circuses or on

7011-414: 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),

7134-491: 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 ,

7257-433: 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

7380-725: 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.

7503-412: 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,

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7626-627: The best known of which is Beijing Opera, which is still popular today. In Thailand , it has been a tradition from the Middle Ages to stage plays based on plots drawn from Indian epics. In particular, the theatrical version of Thailand's national epic Ramakien , a version of the Indian Ramayana , remains popular in Thailand even today. In Cambodia , inscriptions dating back to the 6th century AD indicates evidence of dancers at

7749-432: 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

7872-500: 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

7995-417: The context of performing arts, dance generally refers to human movement , typically rhythmic and to music, used as a form of audience entertainment in a performance setting. Definitions of what constitutes dance are dependent on social , cultural , aesthetic , artistic , and moral constraints and range from functional movement (such as folk dance ) to codified, virtuoso techniques such as ballet . There

8118-636: The country's system made no effect and seemed impossible with the corrupt attitude of the Spaniards toward the Filipinos. These novels were written during the colonization of the Philippines by the Spanish Empire . 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

8241-420: 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

8364-417: 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

8487-412: 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

8610-642: The earliest Indian dramatists and they do it even today. Indian dramatists such as Bhāsa in the 2nd century BC wrote plays that were heavily inspired by the Ramayana and Mahabharata . Kālidāsa in the 1st century BC, is arguably considered to be ancient India 's greatest dramatist. Three famous romantic plays written by Kālidāsa are the Mālavikāgnimitram ( Mālavikā and Agnimitra ), Vikramōrvaśīyam ( Pertaining to Vikrama and Urvashi ), and Abhijñānaśākuntala ( The Recognition of Shakuntala ). The last

8733-540: 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

8856-402: 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

8979-404: The early 20th century, film became a dominant performance medium throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Rhythm and blues , a cultural phenomenon of black America, rose to prominence in the early 20th century, influencing a range of later popular music styles internationally. In the 1930s Jean Rosenthal introduced what would become modern stage lighting , changing the nature of the stage as

9102-405: 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

9225-455: 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

9348-478: 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

9471-538: The first plays were performed in the American Colonies . During the 18th century, the introduction of the popular opera buffa brought opera to the masses as an accessible form of performance. Mozart 's The Marriage of Figaro and Don Giovanni are landmarks of the late 18th century opera. At the turn of the 19th century, Beethoven and the Romantic movement ushered in a new era that led first to

9594-488: The first use of the term ballo (in De Arte Saltandi et Choreas Ducendi ) instead of danza (dance) for his baletti or balli . The term eventually became Ballet . The first Ballet per se is thought to be Balthasar de Beaujoyeulx 's Ballet Comique de la Reine (1581). By the mid-16th century Commedia Dell'arte became popular in Europe, introducing the use of improvisation . This period also introduced

9717-485: The god Osiris was performed annually at festivals throughout the civilization, marking the known beginning of a long relationship between theatre and religion. The Dramatic Ramesseum Papyrus , the oldest surviving illustrated papyrus details the performance during the Sed Festival and has been used as evidence of the birth of theatrical tradition, which western scholars often attribute to ancient Greece. A Griot

9840-439: 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

9963-409: 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

10086-603: 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

10209-525: 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

10332-555: 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

10455-786: The last two cover between them, the entire epic of Ramayana . The powerful Indian emperor Harsha (606–648) is credited with having written three plays: the comedy Ratnavali , Priyadarsika , and the Buddhist drama Nagananda . Many other dramatists followed during the Middle Ages . There were many performing art forms in the southern part of India, Kerala is such a state with different such art forms like Koodiyattam , Nangyarkoothu , Kathakali , Chakyar koothu , Thirayattam and there were many prominent artists like Painkulam Raman Chakyar and others. There are references to theatrical entertainments in China as early as 1500 BC during

10578-414: 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

10701-454: 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

10824-411: 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

10947-569: 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

11070-459: The main exponents more recently are Tania Bruguera , Abel Azcona , Regina José Galindo , Marta Minujín , Melati Suryodarmo and Petr Pavlensky . The discipline 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

11193-429: 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

11316-404: 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

11439-434: The method of making the puppets and the positioning of the rods on the puppets, as opposed to the type of play performed by the puppets. Both styles generally performed plays depicting great adventure and fantasy, rarely was this very stylized form of theatre used for political propaganda. Cantonese shadow puppets were the larger of the two. They were built using thick leather that created more substantial shadows. Symbolic color

11562-558: 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

11685-440: 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

11808-663: 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

11931-410: The necks to facilitate the use of multiple heads with one body. When the heads were not being used, they were stored in a muslin book or fabric lined box. The heads were always removed at night. This was in keeping with the old superstition that if left intact, the puppets would come to life at night. Some puppeteers went so far as to store the heads in one book and the bodies in another, to further reduce

12054-630: 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

12177-656: 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

12300-517: The portrayal is to be done. Drama, as Bharata Muni says, is the imitation of men and their doings ( loka-vritti ). As men and their doings have to be respected on the stage, so drama in Sanskrit is also known by the term rupaka , which means portrayal.{{ }} The Ramayana and Mahabharata can be considered the first recognized plays that originated in India. These epics provided the inspiration to

12423-555: The possibility of reanimating puppets. Shadow puppetry is said to have reached its highest point of artistic development in the 11th century before becoming a tool of the government. In the Song dynasty , there were many popular plays involving acrobatics and music. These developed in the Yuan dynasty into a more sophisticated form with a four- or five-act structure. Yuan drama spread across China and diversified into numerous regional forms,

12546-910: 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 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

12669-474: The prevalence of ritualism amongst Indo-Aryan tribes in which some members of the tribe acted as if they were wild animals, and some others were the hunters. Those who acted as mammals like goats, buffaloes, reindeer, monkeys, etc. were chased by those playing the role of hunters. Bharata Muni (fl. 5th–2nd century BC) was an ancient Indian writer best known for writing the Natya Shastra of Bharata ,

12792-513: The previously male-dominated art. Modern dance began in the late 19th century and early 20th century in response to the restrictions of traditional ballet. The arrival of Sergei Diaghilev 's Ballets Russes (1909–1929) revolutionized ballet and the performing arts generally throughout the Western world, most importantly through Diaghilev's emphasis on collaboration, which brought choreographers, dancers, set designers/artists, composers and musicians together to revitalize and revolutionize ballet. It

12915-499: 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)

13038-484: 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

13161-546: The ruling government and El Filibusterismo (translations: The filibusterism; The Subversive or The Subversion, as in the Locsín English translation, are also possible translations, also known by its alternative English title The Reign of Greed) (1891). The novel's dark theme departs dramatically from the previous novel's hopeful and romantic atmosphere, signifying Ibarra's resort to solving his country's issues through violent means, after his previous attempt in reforming

13284-531: The spectacles of grand opera and then to the musical dramas of Giuseppe Verdi and the Gesamtkunstwerk (total work of art) of the operas of Richard Wagner leading directly to the music of the 20th century. The 19th century was a period of growth for the performing arts for all social classes, technical advances such as the introduction of gaslight to theatres, burlesque , minstrel dancing, and variety theatre. In ballet, women make great progress in

13407-453: 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

13530-414: The storytellers and audience interacting and participating in call and response , which is characterized by a vocalist singing a phrase that is then echoed or responded to with a new phrase by the other performers and/or audience. This ancient tradition is rooted in many African cultures. The earliest recorded theatrical event dates back to 2000 BC with the ceremonial plays of Ancient Egypt . The story of

13653-942: The street. Live performances before an audience are a form of entertainment. The development of audio and video recording has allowed for private consumption of the performing arts. The performing arts often aims to express one's emotions and feelings. Artists who participate in performing arts in front of an audience are called performers. Examples of these include actors , comedians , dancers , magicians , circus artists, musicians , and singers . Performing arts are also supported by workers in related fields, such as songwriting , choreography and stagecraft . Performers often adapt their appearance , such as with costumes and stage makeup , stage lighting , and sound. Performing arts may include dance, music, opera, theatre and musical theatre, magic , illusion , mime , spoken word , puppetry , circus arts , stand-up comedy , improv , professional wrestling and performance art . There

13776-404: The subject. In dance, the connection between the two concepts is stronger than in some other arts, and neither can exist without the other. Choreography is the art of making dances, and the person who practices this art is called a choreographer. Music is an art form which combines pitch , rhythm, and dynamic to create sound. It can be performed using a variety of instruments and styles and

13899-420: The twentieth century, storytelling was the most recognized form of entertainment, although today, some forms still remain. One form, Naghali, was traditionally performed in coffeehouses where the storytellers, or Naghals (Naqqāls), only recited sections of a story at a time, thus retaining regular cliental. These stories were based on events of historical or religious importance and many referenced poetries from

14022-475: 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

14145-435: 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

14268-476: 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

14391-490: 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

14514-489: 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

14637-438: Was also very prevalent; a black face represented honesty, a red one bravery. The rods used to control Cantonese puppets were attached perpendicular to the puppets' heads. Thus, they were not seen by the audience when the shadow was created. Pekingese puppets were more delicate and smaller. They were created out of thin, translucent leather usually taken from the belly of a donkey. They were painted with vibrant paints, thus they cast

14760-560: 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

14883-403: 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:

15006-466: 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

15129-500: Was inspired by a story in the Mahabharata and is the most famous. It was the first to be translated into English and German. In comparison to Bhāsa, who drew heavily from the epics, Kālidāsa can be considered an original playwright. The next great Indian dramatist was Bhavabhuti (c. 7th century). He is said to have written the following three plays: Malati-Madhava , Mahaviracharita and Uttar Ramacharita . Among these three,

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