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Art & Art History vocabulary · Contemporary Art

Performance art

Meaning in art & art history, with examples

nounCommon term

In art & art history, performance art means: Art in which the artist's own actions, carried out live in front of an audience or recorded, are the work itself, rather than an object.

In Turkish: performans sanatı, performans

How it is used

It grew strongly from the 1960s, with roots in Futurism and Dada. Artists perform, stage or re-perform a piece, and museums show documentation such as videos and photographs. A performance can last a few minutes or several months.

Example sentences

  1. The performance art piece takes place in the main hall at 7 p.m., and photography is not allowed.

  2. Performance art often uses the artist's body to explore endurance and vulnerability.

Common collocations

  • performance art piece
  • live performance
  • performance artist
  • durational performance
  • contemporary artThe art of the present time, usually meaning work made from about the 1960s or 1970s to today, often using new media, ideas and ways of exhibiting.
  • conceptual artArt in which the idea or concept behind the work matters more than how it looks or how skilfully it is made; it developed mainly in the 1960s and 1970s.
  • installationAn artwork made for a particular space, often filling a whole room, which visitors walk into or around and experience with more than just their eyes.
  • avant-gardeArtists, works or ideas that are new and experimental and challenge accepted rules; the word is French for the front part of an army.

More terms: Contemporary Art

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