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Actionism
5 artworks, 4 artists
Actionism (lat. actio — activity, action, act) as an art movement formed in the artistic environment of Western Europe in the 1960s. The artists of this direction sought to bring dynamics to the exhibition process, to make the viewer a participant in a certain action, which lasted in space and time, using acting and improvisation. Actionism significantly expanded the interaction scope between an artist and the audience, it revolutionized the exhibition activities by making it a living and provocative art that challenged society.
For the first time, the action art arose among Parisian artists, poets and playwrights, who in 1878 created a closed society, the Hydropathes. They turned their regular meetings into funny live performances, played sketches, read monologues and set up pranks. The society members, who were nicknamed Fumists (fr. fuméе — smoke, fume), ridiculed the bourgeois values of the townsfolk.
In the 20th century, the concept of the “action art” became popular; it was used by futurists and Dadaists, abstract expressionists and body artists. Actionism proclaimed the primacy of the creative process, where the artist was an instrument, and his/her body served as an art object. Performance and happening took their place in the art world.
Actionism as an art style began to take its shape in Zurich, on the stage of the famous Voltaire cabaret, where Dada artists gathered. Fuelled by an aversion to the horrors of World War I, the conversations about the ideology of the new movement led to the production of the plays, in which writers and artists not only described, but also showed their attitude to the reality.
Surrealism picked up the beginnings of the Dadaists, and the paradoxical and shocking events became an integral part of this art movement. Salvador Dalí loved actionism, so he regularly arranged the extravagant antics and dinner parties that provided him with a close attention of the public and the press. The master of abstract expressionism, an American artist Jackson Pollock, in the late 40s came up with the so-called drip technique, pouring and spraying paint on a spread canvas with brushes and improvised items. This technique has two sub-styles: action painting based on the gesture expressiveness, and colourfield painting.
Yves Klein went even further and turned the human body into an artist’s tool. In the presence of the public, Klein’s young naked assistants, smeared with blue paint, pressed their bodies to paper or canvas, leaving imprints on them, which was called “anthropometry”. And the events of the “Viennese actionists”, at which the artists Gunther Bruce and Otto Muehl became famous, were completely scandalous: their participants not only painted and cut their bodies, but also allowed themselves to urinate in public. In the early 1970s, Marina Abramović, the world-famous performance master, became famous for her performances with deep psychological overtones featuring her husband Ulay.
Actionism is widely used nowadays within such significant world art events as the Venice Biennale, during which artists widely engage visitors in interactive art events. Artists of this style create their works during artistic interventions, installations or multimedia immersions that allow them to interact with the viewer.
Famous actionist artists:
Tristan Tzara, Francis Picabia, Jackson Pollock, Salvador Dalí, Yves Klein, Anatoly Zverev, Gunter Bruce, Otto Muehl, Jiro Yoshihara and the Gutai Group (Japan), Yoko Ono, Marina Abramović, Oleg Kulik, Feodosiy Tetianych (Freepulia), Pyotr Pavlensky, Voina art group, Dmitry Pimenov.
For the first time, the action art arose among Parisian artists, poets and playwrights, who in 1878 created a closed society, the Hydropathes. They turned their regular meetings into funny live performances, played sketches, read monologues and set up pranks. The society members, who were nicknamed Fumists (fr. fuméе — smoke, fume), ridiculed the bourgeois values of the townsfolk.
In the 20th century, the concept of the “action art” became popular; it was used by futurists and Dadaists, abstract expressionists and body artists. Actionism proclaimed the primacy of the creative process, where the artist was an instrument, and his/her body served as an art object. Performance and happening took their place in the art world.
Actionism as an art style began to take its shape in Zurich, on the stage of the famous Voltaire cabaret, where Dada artists gathered. Fuelled by an aversion to the horrors of World War I, the conversations about the ideology of the new movement led to the production of the plays, in which writers and artists not only described, but also showed their attitude to the reality.
Surrealism picked up the beginnings of the Dadaists, and the paradoxical and shocking events became an integral part of this art movement. Salvador Dalí loved actionism, so he regularly arranged the extravagant antics and dinner parties that provided him with a close attention of the public and the press. The master of abstract expressionism, an American artist Jackson Pollock, in the late 40s came up with the so-called drip technique, pouring and spraying paint on a spread canvas with brushes and improvised items. This technique has two sub-styles: action painting based on the gesture expressiveness, and colourfield painting.
Yves Klein went even further and turned the human body into an artist’s tool. In the presence of the public, Klein’s young naked assistants, smeared with blue paint, pressed their bodies to paper or canvas, leaving imprints on them, which was called “anthropometry”. And the events of the “Viennese actionists”, at which the artists Gunther Bruce and Otto Muehl became famous, were completely scandalous: their participants not only painted and cut their bodies, but also allowed themselves to urinate in public. In the early 1970s, Marina Abramović, the world-famous performance master, became famous for her performances with deep psychological overtones featuring her husband Ulay.
Actionism is widely used nowadays within such significant world art events as the Venice Biennale, during which artists widely engage visitors in interactive art events. Artists of this style create their works during artistic interventions, installations or multimedia immersions that allow them to interact with the viewer.
Famous actionist artists:
Tristan Tzara, Francis Picabia, Jackson Pollock, Salvador Dalí, Yves Klein, Anatoly Zverev, Gunter Bruce, Otto Muehl, Jiro Yoshihara and the Gutai Group (Japan), Yoko Ono, Marina Abramović, Oleg Kulik, Feodosiy Tetianych (Freepulia), Pyotr Pavlensky, Voina art group, Dmitry Pimenov.
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