Course detail

Introduction to Performance Art

FaVU-1UdUPAcad. year: 2024/2025

The course is an introduction to performance art. Basic examples of artistic practice are presented against the backdrop of the foundational texts on performance art: Performance Art & Live Art by RoseLee Goldberg, Anti Art by Mc Evilley, Kaprow's set of texts Blurring of Art and Life, and Hannah Higgins' study of the Fluxus Experience.

 

Language of instruction

Czech

Number of ECTS credits

2

Mode of study

Not applicable.

Guarantor

prof. akad. soch. Tomáš Ruller

Department

Department of Art History and Theory (KTDU)

Entry knowledge

Interest in performance art. Sufficient language skills to study texts in English.

 

Rules for evaluation and completion of the course

A condition for credit is meeting the attendance requirement (at least 50 %), presenting a paper (approx. 30 min.) with the use of visual accompaniment and submitting a research paper on the assigned topic of approx. 5 standard pages.

 

A minimum of 50 % attendance is required. Any justified lower attendance is compensated in the appropriate proportion by the preparation of additional seminar work submitted during the examination period.

 

Aims

The aim of the course, organized as an overviewof the basic phenomena of performance art in the structure of the given thematic areas, is to introduce students to the issues of performance art so that they can orient themselves in its basic developmental forms and sub-paradigms.

 

Upon completion of the course, students will be able to: 

- identify and place and time major works of performance art;  

- describe the basic developmental paradigms in performance art; 

- apply the basic terminology of the discipline to specific works of art; 

- describe the means used to realize a specific performance artwork.

 

Study aids

Not applicable.

Prerequisites and corequisites

Not applicable.

Basic literature

GOLDBERG, RoseLee. Performance Now: Live Art for the Twenty-First Century. Thames & Hudson, New York, 2018. ISBN 978-0500021255.
HEATHFIELD, Adrian. Live: Art and Performance. London: Tate, 2015. ISBN: 1854375016.
JONES, Amelia. The Artist's Body. Phaidon, London, 2012. ISBN 978-0714863931
KAPROW, Allan. Essays on the Blurring of Art and Life. Berkeley: University of California, 1996
MCEVILLEY, Thomas. The triumph of anti-art: conceptual and performance art in the formation of post-modernism. Kingston, N.Y: McPherson & Co, 2012. ISBN 0929701925.
MORGANOVÁ, Pavlína. Akční umění. Olomouc: Votobia, 1999. ISBN 80-7198-351-9.
WOOD, Catherine. Performance in Contemporary Art. Tate, London, 2022. ISBN 978-1849768238

Recommended reading

BERGHAUS, Gunter. Avant-garde Performance. Palgrave, New York, 2005. ISBN‏ 140394644.
BERGHUIS, Thomas J. Performance art in China. Hong Kong: Timezone 8, 2006. ISBN 9889926598.
CAGE, John. Silence. Praha: Tranzit, 2010. ISBN 978-80-87259-07-8
ČIHÁKOVÁ-NOSHIRO, Vlasta. Umění akce, katalog výstavy Galerie Mánes, Praha: Mánes, 1991.
DEBORD, Guy. Společnost spektáklu. Intu, 2007. ISBN 978-80-903355-5-4.
GOLDBERG, RoseLee. Performance art: from futurism to the present. 3rd ed. New York: Thames & Hudson, 2011. World of art. ISBN 978-0500204047.
GOLDBERG, RoseLee. Performance: live art since 1960. New York: Harry N. Abrams Publishers, 1998. ISBN 9780810943605.
GREEN, Malcolm. Muehl, Brus, Nitsch, Schwarzkogler, Writings of the Vienna Actionists. Atlas Press, London, 2000. ISBN: 1-900565-10-2.
HENRI, Adrian. Total art: environments, happenings, and performance. New York, N.Y. [u.a.]: Oxford Univ. Pr, 1974. ISBN 0195199340.
HIGGINS Dick, Intermedia, in: Hendricks, Geoffrey. Critical Mass. Mead Art Museum, New Jersey, 2003. ISBN 0813533031.
HIGGINS, Hannah. Fluxus Experience. Berkeley: University of California, 2002. ISBN 978-0520228672.
ISBN 1137322209.
JAPPE, Elisabeth. Performance, Ritual, Prozess: Handbuch der Aktionskunst in Eruopa. München: Prestel, 1993. ISBN 3791313002.
JIROUSOVÁ Věra. Rozhovory s Josephem Beuysem. Votobia, Olomouc, 1999. ISBN: 8071983780.
JODOROWSKY, Alejandro. Psychomagie. Malvern, Praha, 2015. ISBN: 978-80-7530-012-6.
JOHNSON, Dominic. The Art of Living: An Oral History of Performance Art. Palgrave, New York; 2015
KOSUTH, Joseph. Art After Philosophy and After, Collected Writings, 1966-1990. MIT Press, 1991.
NITSCH, Hermann. Orgien Mysterien Theater. März, Darmstadt 1969.

Classification of course in study plans

  • Programme VUM_B Bachelor's 2 year of study, summer semester, compulsory-optional
    2 year of study, summer semester, compulsory-optional
    2 year of study, summer semester, compulsory-optional
    2 year of study, summer semester, compulsory-optional
    2 year of study, summer semester, compulsory-optional
    2 year of study, summer semester, compulsory-optional
    2 year of study, summer semester, compulsory-optional
    2 year of study, summer semester, compulsory-optional
    2 year of study, summer semester, compulsory-optional
    2 year of study, summer semester, compulsory-optional
    2 year of study, summer semester, compulsory-optional
    2 year of study, summer semester, compulsory-optional
    2 year of study, summer semester, compulsory-optional

Type of course unit

 

Lecture

13 hod., compulsory

Teacher / Lecturer

prof. akad. soch. Tomáš Ruller

Syllabus

1. Total Art (Henri)

2. Anti art (McEvilley)

3. The Art of Happening (Kaprow)

4. Actionism / Situationism (Nitsch / Debord)

5. Body Art (Jones)

6. Action Art / Performance Art (Morgan / Goldberg)

7. Activism & Social Art (Beuys – FIU)

8. Events, Activities & Intermedia Art (Fluxus – Higgins)

9. Conceptual Art / Conceptual Art (Flynt / Kosuth)

10. Process Art / Multimedia Art (Jappe / Berghaus)

11. Psychomagic / Shock Art (Jodorowski / Wei Wei)

12. Live Art / Art of Life (Heathfield / Johnson)

 

Seminar

13 hod., compulsory

Teacher / Lecturer

prof. akad. soch. Tomáš Ruller