Evolution Of Art During The 1960's And 1970

Several of our readings so far this term have discussed the evolution of art, particularly during the 1960’s and 1970’s. At this time, art was under going a dramatic shift, leaving the conventional behind and creating a rebellious new form of avant garde art. Performance art allows artists to use their bodies as both a canvas and an artistic medium to bring their art into the physical world and allows them to experiment and challenge the ways in which the world views art and art objects. As our readings suggest, artists use performance as a way of communicating many different messages, both personal and public in nature, including many different social and political issues. Many artists use performance as a way of discussing the issues

It was not until the 1960’s and 1970’s the walking became the actual art. The idea of movement as art began with Jackson Pollock. For him, it was the process itself that was the art, and the physical painting on the canvas was just a secondary product . This was the basis for many other performance artists, across many different mediums, including film, music, or paint, it was the process that was the art and not the final product. These acts are not only a way of communicating a message or point chosen by the artist, but also as an act of rebellion against the traditional and conventional ideas of art. This is the case for many artists who use walking as a medium for their art. For example, in Francis Alys’ piece The Collector, Alys walks through Mexico City with a magnetic dog on wheels. As the dog rolls through the streets, it collects metal trash, concluding with a final product that is vastly different than the one he started with. Alys uses walking to examine the city and the value of the inanimate objects that are thrown away. It is not the video of Alys and his magnetic dog walking through the city that is the art, nor is it the final product (the magnetic dog covered in trash) that is the

Kaprow states that “A happening with only an emphatic response on the part of a seated audience, is not a Happening at all; it is simply stage theater ”. Marina Abramovic’s The Artist is Present had over 1400 observers in person and over 800,000 people viewing the 700-hour performance in an online live stream . It can be argued that much of Abramovic’s audience was actually apart of her performance because they participated in it, but the ones who were simply observers, both in person and online, are what Kaprow would call a seated audience with an emphatic response. Her performance also breaks Kaprow’s rules about changing locations and about the variability of time, because it took place in the same location over approximately two months . According to Kaprow, this would not be considered to be an effective form of performance art, however The Artist is Present is one of Abramovic’s most well known and well though out performance pieces. The performance is not necessarily political in nature but is much more personal, both for the artist and for the hundreds of observers who witnessed the performance. Abramovic wanted to examine how we perceive time and create a deeper and more meaningful engagement with her audience . Even though this directly contradicts with Kaprow’s rules, the artist uses her own body to help convey her messages