Conceptual Art
Performance into Art MoMA Learning Conceptual Art Theme
Marina Abramović. Marina Abramović: The Artist Is Present. 2010 Share this information with your students: For 7 ½ hours each day over 2 ½ months, Marina Abramović sat in a gallery where visitors were invited to sit silently across from her for as long as they wished while other visitors looked on. Is Abramović’s role as an artist similar to that of a painter, actor, conductor, choreographer or director? Marina Abramović. Marina Abramović: The Artist Is Present. 2010 Marina Abramović. Marina Abramović: The Artist Is Present. 2010 MoMA Learning Conceptual Art Theme
“I think a person who moves into an apartment and puts curtains on the window is also being an artist at that point, you know? There’s something that exists, and you’re trying to see what it would be like if it was another way.” – Vito Acconci Share this information with your students: Vito Acconci said: “I think a person who moves into an apartment and puts curtains on the window is also being an artist at that point, you know? There’s something that exists, and you’re trying to see what it would be like if it was another way.” Do you think Marina Abramović would agree with this statement? Why or why not? MoMA Learning Conceptual Art Theme
Carolee Schneemann. Up to and Including Her Limits. 1973–76. Share this information with your students: In this work, a rope and harness hang above a huge canvas. Video monitors showing a recording of the artist Carolee Schneemann suspended naked above the canvas using her body to paint it. Often all that is left of a performance artist’s work is the remnants of the performance, and multimedia documentation. Is the documentation of a performance an adequate stand-in for the actual work of art? Should the documentation of the performance be displayed at all? Performance art takes the form of live action, but it has reached a large public audience through documentation of the performance. Now that you have explored the performances of Abramović, Acconci, and Schneeman, consider how each artist chose to document their works. Does the documentation add anything to your understanding of the work? Would you change anything in the documentation of any of these works? Carolee Schneemann. Up to and Including Her Limits. 1973–76. Crayon on paper, rope, harness, and two-channel analog video with audio transferred to digital video. Courtesy the artist and P.P.O.W Gallery, New York. © 2012 Carolee Schneemann/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Carolee Schneemann. Up to and Including Her Limits. 1973–76. MoMA Learning Conceptual Art Theme