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Performance Arts Facts & Worksheets

Performance art, a time-based art form that typically features a live presentation to an audience or to onlookers (as on a street) and draws on such arts as acting, poetry, music, dance, and painting.

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Performance art, a time-based art form that typically features a live presentation to an audience or to onlookers (as on a street) and draws on such arts as acting, poetry, music, dance, and painting.

See the fact file below for more information on the Performance arts or alternatively, you can download our 21-page Performance Arts worksheet pack to utilise within the classroom or home environment.

Key Facts & Information

DEVELOPMENT OF PERFORMANCE ARTS

  • Performance art refers to a conceptual art which conveys as an alternative artistic manifestation of visual arts such as dadaism, futurism, and constructivism.
  • It features a live presentation to an audience and draws on such arts as acting, poetry, music, dance, and painting through physical movement and impermanence.
  • While the term was officially recognized in the 1970s, performance art has developed throughout the years. In 1916, Hugo Ball and Emmy Henning founded Cabaret Voltaire, an artistic nightclub in Zürich, Switzerland. It was a cabaret for artistic and political purposes.
  • German artist Oskar Schlemmer was known for Das triadische Ballet, “The Triadic Ballet”, from 1916-1922, which presented complex movements and elaborate costumes in the Bauhaus theater.
  • Other art movements that inspired performance arts include action painting – paint is spontaneously dribbled, splashed or smeared onto the canvas, rather than being carefully applied – and Nouveau réalisme – the contemporary of American Pop Art.
  • In 1952, experimental composer John Cage organized a fluxus event that included performances by choreographer and dancer Merce Cunningham, poet Charles Olson, and artist Robert Rauschenberg, among others.

PERFORMANCE ARTS IN THE 1960s to 70s

  • In the 1960s and 1970s, performance art was distinguished by improvisation, spontaneity, audience interaction, and political agitation.
  • New kinds of performance art cemented its coverage:
    • Viennese actionism – a violent, radical, and explicit form of performance art that developed in the Austrian capital.
    • The Living Theatre – known for innovative production of experimental drama on radical themes such as confrontations with tradition, authority, and sometimes audiences.
    • Fluxus – confederation of international artists working in performance, painting, sculpture, poetry, experimental music, and even correspondence art.
    • Process art – process of making art is the a prominent aspect of the completed work.
    • Happening – requires active participation from the spectators, and are unique, improvisational events that can take place in any venue.
    • Video performance – audiovisual installations using experimental arts.
    • Endurance art – performed over a long period of time, testing the physical or emotional stamina of the artist or audience.
  • Known performance artists in the 1960s include Barbara T. Smith, Joan Jonas, Joseph Beuys, Nam June Paik, Yayoi Kusama, Dennis Oppenheim, and Wolf Vostell.
  • Known performance artists in the 1970s include Laurie Anderson, Marina Abramović, Chris Burden, Gilbert and George, and Gina Pane.
  • Nam June Paik is internationally recognized as the “Father of Video Art”. He created his first video piece in 1963, which revolutionized the meaning of performance art.
  • Carolee Schneemann was a performance artist, known for her multimedia works on the body, narrative, sexuality, and gender. She considered her body a surface for work.
  • Joan Jonas is another performance artist who mixed video and performance music, exploiting dance, sculpture, costume design, and installation.
  • Gilbert & George are artists who work together as a collaborative art duo. Sometimes they use their own bodies as their canvasses and mostly create large formatted photo-based works in a graphic style with bright colors, as well as paintings, collages, performances, and video.

PERFORMANCE ARTS IN THE 1980s and BEYOND

  • The technique of performance art in the 1980s started to adopt some technical brilliance.
  • Recognized as part of the visual art, performance arts has since been used to also describe film, video, photographic, and installation-based artwork.
  • Performance arts also embraced social and political contexts. Feminist performance art was introduced. Their earlier performances involved placing posters and making public appearances in museums and galleries in New York, to critique discrimination against one’s gender or race.
  • Performance artists in the 1990s include Laurie Anderson, Spalding Gray, Eric Bogosian, Willem Dafoe, and Ann Magnuson.
  • By the 2000s, many artists were incorporating internet technology using digital video, webcams, and streaming media, into performance art.
  • Their performance arts drew attention to the role of gender, race, colonialism, and the body.
  • Embracing political causes, many radical performance artists were ostracised and some persecuted for their works of political content.
  • Modern showcase of the genre is seen in Blue Man Group and the Burning Man festival, held annually in the Black Rock Desert, Nevada.

Performance Arts Worksheets

This is a fantastic bundle which includes everything you need to know about the Performance Arts across 21 in-depth pages. These are ready-to-use Performance Arts worksheets that are perfect for teaching students about the Performance art, a time-based art form that typically features a live presentation to an audience or to onlookers (as on a street) and draws on such arts as acting, poetry, music, dance, and painting.

Complete List Of Included Worksheets

  • Performance Arts Facts
  • Live Art
  • Flip Book
  • Art Installation
  • I Am an Art
  • Engaging Art
  • Performance Dance
  • Blue Man Art
  • Performance in Photography
  • Five-Item Art
  • Social Issues through Art

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Link will appear as Performance Arts Facts & Worksheets: https://kidskonnect.com - KidsKonnect, April 1, 2021

Use With Any Curriculum

These worksheets have been specifically designed for use with any international curriculum. You can use these worksheets as-is, or edit them using Google Slides to make them more specific to your own student ability levels and curriculum standards.

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