Performance Art: From Futurism to the Present

Performance is in some sense a combination of theater, dance, mime, concept art, music, and-today-even video; it can be simply defined as live art by artists. Goldberg discusses its origins in tribal rituals and passion plays and its twentieth-century revival by the Futurists. Surrealists, Dadaists, and Bauhaus artists. With over 170 illustrations of unique performances she traces its recent history from the turn of the century through the event staged in the 1960s and 1970s by such artists as John Cage.