March/16/10

AHIS- DADAISM

Happening/ Performance ( the notion of the body)

From the late 1960s to the 1970s, and beyond….

Happenings: series of actions, events and situations developed from the late 1950s to the mid 1960s that were planned as an art form. Their important characteristics are the follow:

1- Happenings might take place anywhere ( from art galleries, basements, studio, and even on the street).

2- They are often inter- disciplinary,3- They have a nonlinear narrative and4- they emphasized the involvement of the observer.5- The most important elements are planned, but proponents

sometimes left space for improvisation and chance.6- The happenings eliminate the boundary between the artwork and

the viewer.

Artists: Carolee Schneemann, Red Grooms, Robert Whitman, Jim Dine, Lucas Samaras, Robert Rauschenberg, among others.

International: Yve- Klein ( France).

Most Important Artists: Allan Kaprow and Claes Oldenburg

Allan Kaprow created the procedure as the result of his analysis of the environmental qualities of Pollock’s paintings, the teachings of John Cage ( the notions of event and chance), and his believe that all artistic hierarchies and systems of value were over.

Claes Oldenburg came from a different background, ( Neo- Dada and proto Pop- Art), emphasizing urban environments and the end line of consumerist society, such as garbage, rags, gadgets, outmoded objects, corrugated cardboards, old newspaper etc.

He founded the Store ( an art environment), where he created

Ray Gun ( defined by right angle), which was later proposed as the bases of a museum at the Documental of Kassel ( Germany) in 1972.

Conclusion:

The happenings were based on the availability of the world at large.

Performances: was the direct continuation of the happenings, incorporating the characteristics of the latter. They were enacted from the early 1960’s to the 1970s, onwards, being a valid artistic experience today.

Possible Evolution: Minimalism:

Process Art ( critique of the traditional object)

Performance ( critique of the traditional subject)

Yet, the performances presented the novelty of focusing on the “ body” as the subject and object of the work.

It produced a self- reflexivity ( self and other, participation and voyeurism, sadism and masochism, public and private, etc.) that allowed its continuation in institutional critique, feminist art, and other contemporary artistic approaches.

Its interdisciplinary approach might provoke the enactment of performance as theater, music, video, dance etc.

Artists: Vito Acconei, Hermann Nitsch, Chris Burden, Robert Morris and Simony Forti, Carolee Schneemann, Yoko Ono( Japan), Joseph Beuys ( Germany), Allan Kaprow, Lygia Clark and Helio Oiticica ( Brazil).

In the United States, there is a historical evolution- as suggested by the textbook- in the works of Schneemann---- Vito Acconci--- Christ Burden.

1- Carolee Schneemann ( 1939-): the phenomenological approach of her first piece Eye Body ( 1963), going through avant-garde pieces such as Meat Joy ( 1964), where she proposed the meeting of art and life through the joys of sex, to the troubled proposal of

2- Vito Acconci ( 1940-): who proposed a self- reflexive approach where the institutional limits of art were critically defined but, eventually, respected, in works such as Trademarks ( 1970), Conversions, ( 1971) and Claim ( 1971).

3- Chris Burden ( 1946-): who crossed these same limits to the presentation/ representation of events of his near self- destruction, such as in the performance Shoot (1971) and Trans-fixed (1974).

After the happenings and performances the “ body” became a recurrent problem in Contemporary Art, as it can be seen in the context of the 1990s (AIDS Epidemics, Gulf War, economic crisis, cultural conservatism, etc).