Abstract
Discourse on performance art has been ongoing for almost as long as it has been around, but the last decade or so has seen an unprecedented focus on the art form with specific regard to its place in the art market. It is necessary to explore the genre, paying particular attention to its history and development in the art market up until now. An in-depth analysis of literature on the subject executed on journal articles, newspaper articles, and books that focus on the history and developmental economics of performance art as well as the nature and artistic evolution of the genre is a key approach to finding solutions to the essential questions. Pioneer performers, pre-eminent artists and even budding ones are reviewed in this literature in the context of the art market and the changes being registered within the genre and the findings posted. Existing studies and news on performance art agrees on several key facts. First, it is established that performance art was sidelined in the art market until the 2000s. Secondly, there is adequate evidence to suggest that the pool of performance art consumers is a mix of the general public and fine art enthusiasts, the latter of whom have a tendency to buy constituents of performance art as part of their conceptual art collections. Thirdly, it has also been ascertained that marketability of performance art is sharply disparate and heavily depends on the brand of the artist, the gallery, and museums of affiliation. Finally, recent analysis of performance art indicate that the digital revolution is significantly impacting the genre, with some of the newest artists taking to digital platforms to perform. Overall, performance art is still behind most fine art genres in terms of marketability, but the outreach of performance artists is growing tremendously and the genre will catch up in the very near future.
Introduction
Performance art is easily one of the most unique and interesting forms of art in existence, features it has possessed since its inception and development in the 1960s. Over a span of over 40 years, performance art has evolved from an extremely eccentric, virtually unsalable form of artistic expression to a marketable-although still considered aberrant by some-class of fine art.At the turn of the new millennium, performance art started breaking new ground and entering exhibitions on a scale that was grand enough to warrant earn it a place on the global art market. This development naturally invited more scholarship on the art form and prompted research on it as a component of the art market that was rapidly evolving from a marginalized element to an integral feature of the fine arts industry.
Discourse on performance art has been ongoing for almost as long as it has been around, but the last decade or so has seen an unprecedented focus on the art form with specific regard to its place in the art market. The history of performance art consumption is not as unconventional as the art form itself. It is now evident that with the increase in sales at auction houses and improved the influence of art houses, art fairs become more commonplace as the more eccentric portions of the art market struggled-and successfully so-to keep the economics of their eccentric art alive. Performance art has benefited from this rise in art fairs and exhibitions because performance art is a process and experience and not an object. In full view of these facts, it is essential to understand how performance art has evolved into an integral component of the greater art market.
Research RationaleThis research was carried out because of the unique nature of performance art; it is presumably hard to sell because it presents to the consumer an intangible element. The fact that performance art is an experience and not a product is, therefore, an interesting idea that raises the fundamental question of how its nature impacts its consumption. It is stated that if one is to understand the history and the economic history of performance art, they must first understand how and why art history's "deepest formations and assumptions are based on the capacity to "freeze" the object of study as paradigmatic of its kind and/or as a masterpiece." This statement casts in a very strong light the fact that performance art cannot be "frozen." Worse still, there are no apparent paradigms in performance art or its analysis because unlike other art forms, it bears no faces; it has no movements, no era, and no rules-it boasts only an origin and growth up until now.
In full view of these facts above, the researcher deemed it necessary to inquire on how performance art could be sold without being condensed into a physical form that could hold a price tag and, in so doing, give a monetary and economic definition on performances of art and their respective artists. The researcher gathered the sources for this study and carried out relevant analyses basing on the popular view that performance art was not only inherently different from other forms of fine art but also disparate in terms of the economics that defined its consumption. With heavy reliance on existing publications on the subject, the above presuppositions informed a categorical review of the history of performance art as a domain of fine art and, in the same vein, as a product within the art market.
Aims and Objectives
Aims
Upon the conclusion of this study, the researcher will have accomplished the following:
- Define performance art
- Outline the evolution of the art market with regard to performance art
- Shed light on how performance art is consumed with special emphasis on the fact that it lacks a physical dimension that can be purchased as is the case with other forms of art.
Objectives
Each of the three aims above has a set of corresponding objectives thus:
Aim 1:
- State and explain the defining characteristics of performance art.
- Understand the uniqueness of the performance art and how it manifests it.
- To compare performance art to other art forms and in the process explain why it challenges the notion that it is a relic from the 1970s.
Aim 2:
- To trace the origin of performance art and explain how its sources define its consumption as an art.
- To examine the developments in the art market and mark the point of entry of performance art as a viable "commodity."
- To bring to light the changes in performance art or the art market that have allowed performance art to sell in ways it could not two or three decades ago.
Aim 3:
- To explain how the consumption of performance art is different from that of normal art.
- To present and dissect arguments on how the nature of performance art determines its target market and avenues of consumption.
- To predict the future of performance art in the art market by explaining the trends and postulating the developments within the art market industry.
Research Questions
In order to achieve the aims and objectives above, the researcher will try to answer the following questions:
- What is performance art?
- How is performance art different from other forms of fine art?
- What is the history of performance art; when did it come into existence, how has it developed over time, and what is its current state?
- What is the nature and defining characteristics of the art market?
- How has the market evolved to accommodate performance art?
- How different is the consumption of performance art from the uptake of conventional fine art?
- Who are the buyers of the performance art experience/process?
- How much room does performance art take in the art market?
- What are the avenues through which performance art is sold in the art market?
- What are the future of performance art and the art market in general?
Literature Review
Defining Performance Art
Although various definitions exist, there seems to be consensus on the view that performance art is the product of a mix of genres. It came out of the collision of practically all the Avant-garde forms of art that existed in the mid-20th century, a fact that is proven by the fact that despite having defining characteristics, performance art tends to lack movements and principles for creation. Cheng provides a more comprehensive and exhaustive definition to the genre when he posits that from a historiographic standpoint, it is a product of the European Avant-garde movements from earlier in the 20th century tempered with experimental energies that came in the wave of post-war activities such as action painting and happenings. Post-modern dance and solo performance have also defined the genre.
Evidently, performance art is extremely hybrid and interdisciplinary in nature. Notably, it tends to heavily rely on some elemental forms of art-not all of which are fine art-manifesting itself through several features that are uncharacteristic of fine art such as bodily presence and movement (via dance) and so on. Other scholars have refined the above definitions above with the proposition that in order for a presentation to merit the title "performance art," it must be delivered within a fine art context. Better still, some posit that the 'artwork' in performance art is the combination of the time, space, and other elements that make up the presentation. Hence, this means that a work of performance art cannot be sold-even though some elements of it can be sold.
A Brief History: The Nature of Performance Art as Defined by its OriginsMost research on the roots of performance art seems to occur around the perspective that the element of abstract expressionism, which centered around art as the physical act of painting rather than the meticulous effort of using a brush on the canvas itself, was one of the earliest origins of performance art. If this claim is anything to go by, it is justified to posit that researchers think performance art can be traced to the 1950s, at the height of abstract expressionism. Wheeler further states that performance art evolved out of a conscious effort-by artists who had been trained primarily as sculptors and painters-to break existing constructs of what was art and non-art and make art meaningful to audiences that were not necessarily trained in the arts. The above point of view explains why most analyses of performance art reveal an effort by the artist to break the norms of fine art such as the elitism in classical painting, for instance.
Siegelbaum is of the...
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