Tiziana Fata

In the essay ‘Performance: The Golden Years’, Rosalie Goldberg explains that performance has a cyclical nature to it, in that its popularity rises and falls and inevitably rises again.  The 1970’s was a landmark era when it was seen as ‘fashionable’ and influenced many other forms of art.  Yet, as Goldberg’s thesis implies, she goes on to explain how performance loses its popularity closer to 1982 with the rise of the media and other forms of artistic expression that attracted a bigger audience.

Written in 1982, Goldberg already sees a shift in performance interest.  The ‘newer generation’ was to blame since their perspective on performance was more media driven compared to the conceptualists in earlier years.  This caused a lot of controversy, as this new generation seemed to be ‘selling out’ by introducing theatre, cabaret and comedy in order to attract a broader audience for profit. This shift challenged the line between fine art and popular entertainment.  As a response to these types of media driven changes, conceptual artists were also reinventing performance by using ‘live art’; live performances that displayed torture, violence and minimalism for example. Some artists even used the concept of the ‘gaze’ to attract an audience, appealing to their natural voyeur instincts.   Soon enough, the hype behind performance had played itself out and many of the performance artists moved to painting, sculpting and photography, which were more mainstream and profitable forms of expression.

As the cycle has it however, performance will rise again as soon as the prevailing style losing popularity. Every time performance returns, it is very different in nature because it is a response to the changing artistic concerns and cultures of that day and age. This idea of a ‘cycle’ can be related to other industries like music and fashion for example where trends seem to return when the latest fashions fade in popularity. It seems to be a means of recycling if you will, reviving some nostalgia from the past and making it popular again.

Seeing as how performance returns in different forms after each cycle, do you think it is possible that the art form will deviate so drastically from its original definition that it cannot be seen as performance anymore?  Can you think of how this has already happened in other industries, like the music industry for example?

Alex Josselyn

In Performance: The Golden Years, Roselee Goldberg, discusses a bit of the history of Performance Art as a Conceptual art form.  The idea being Conceptual art, which separates itself from typical – more mainstream – styles of performance, is that it aspires to deliver a social-political comment or view without necessarily entertaining its audience. 

The late 60’s and early 70’s saw the beginning of the performance movement which sought to force people to revaluate their appreciation of what constitutes as art.  By the mid seventies this movement had lost its novelty and the followers of this movement again began to generalize.  Goldberg refers to this second wave as the “new generation” who were responsible for creating washed-out replicas of their predecessors work-styles – according to the conventional “old generation” perspective of performance artists, whose values were being compromised and geared more towards entertaining, not expressing controversial ideas. 

In my opinion, this is the case of any movement or creation: it can only go so long before it is not “new” or revolutionary anymore.  The conventions of an art form must constantly be evolving or else it is stale and as they say “dead art”.  Performances are intended to be confusing and unclear, so once they can be fully understood, they lose their effect as a Conceptual art piece.  Performance artists were pioneers in breaking down the barriers between life and art and collaborating between difference mediums of expression.  The lines between the art forms were pulled back and revaluated by the artists and the spectators.  And in turn, this was not only a reassessment of art and how we view it, but of life, existence, politics, gender roles, sexuality, etc. with the artists experimenting and discovering their relationship with themselves, space, time, objects, and ideas. 

It has conventionally been perceived that performance art should not seek to please its audience but be presenting unfiltered, raw and honest.  Artists like Laurie Anderson, a “new generation” performer, challenge that very convention, making her work entertaining as well as thought provoking and utilizing the media in her performance as a means of reaching the masses.

There will always be artists who soley intend on breaking the mould.  When the public is focused on primary/traditional art forms, there will be artists who break the mould, blur the lines and go directly against the grain of the majority.  When the public catches up and becomes obsessed with the more abstract (and thereby making the avant-guard into something mainstream) there will be artists returning to the basics and reinventing them.  There is a constant action and reaction, back and forth, suppression and revolution, as though artistic movements were like the tides going in and out.   Goldberg states that there will also be artists, like Anderson, who will blur the lines between high and low art, what is common and what is avant-guard, by packaging unconventional performances in away that is acceptable and digestible by the public.  The media makes this possible as it is a popular tool for communication and artistic expression.

My question is, if the relationship between invention and reinvention in Conceptual art, specifically with regards to performance, is a repetitive motion, what is exactly the nature of Conceptual art?  Is definition in a constant state of evolution, as the publics appreciation of art is constantly changing as well?

Jason Soy

What is the Golden Years?

The 1970s is considered the Golden Years of Performance as it is during this time that the medium grew to its own unique art form. It’s important to note the significance of performance as it had major influence on the art of 1970s.

What is Performance Art?

Performance art during the 1960’s was used to unsettle society’s views on accepted art and it would eventually evolve into an art form itself. It is still an important art form to display cerebral and ironic gestures of Conceptual art.

There are two generations of performance artistes:

•  The first generation comprised of artistes experimenting with “surrogate performances” that had recorded voices, puppets, or video devices to express the artistes and to take the place of the actual performer. This ensured that only the presence of the artist is felt without the artist having to be there.
• The second generation of performance artistes followed the footsteps of the first generation, but they added narratives and sequential presentations and this separated them from the first generation as it was no longer only somber and cerebral displays.

Conflict Arises

There was a gap between the first generation and second generation performance artistes. The first generation artistes viewed their work as a sort of soul searching process that was breaking barriers and shattering boundaries while revealing something innate. The second generation did this to an extent, but also added the element of mass appeal to the general population and thus the argument of integrity vs. popularity separated the generations.

• During this time of tension, the majority of the art was angst inspired and this in turn created a lot of unsettling performance pieces.

Conflict Resolved

Eventually, artistes from both sides of the argument agreed that they all had similar goals: to create intelligent and provocative entertainment. Artistes then in turn started creating art that was appealing to the sophisticated and the intelligent while still being accessible and entertaining to the general public. This tension and conflict between generations inspired various art forms to appeal to many while maintaining integrity and is credited for spawning new styles and forms of painting and other art. Performance art is extremely important and will forever go down in history as a revolutionary art form that gave birth to new art for generations to come.