Performance: Live Art Since 1960 [Hardcover]

RoseLee Goldberg (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 15, 1998

Live performance is now one of the dominant art forms worldwide. In the United States and Europe, Japan, India, and Africa, an ever-increasing number of artists, including Robert Wilson, Marina Abramovic, Pina Bausch, Karen Finley, and Matthew Barney, in a variety of styles, are engaged in evocative, contemplative, and critical performance works. This is the most complete and profusely illustrated survey of performance from the 1960s to the present. RoseLee Goldberg, the acknowledged authority on performance art and author of Abrams' 1979 Performance: Live Art 1909 to the Present, begins her discussion with the emergence of performance in the work of Yves Klein and Piero Manzoni and later in that of Meredith Monk and Laurie Anderson. She shows how performance explores and reveals the unexpected and the forbidden more than any other art form.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Literature on performance art is becoming more plentiful, but few up-to-date histories exist. Part of the problem is the nature of this kind of art. Its enticement stems from the general lack of boundaries, but this same fluidity makes harnessing it to a simple text difficult. Building from a base of photographic stills of works now considered classics, Goldberg, former curator of the Kitchen Center for Video, Music, and Performance, has tackled this problem admirably. Goldberg writes about performance art from direct experience?she was involved with it from the beginning?and her lucid essays offer just enough theory to help the reader grasp performance art's impact within the context of the entire century. Goldberg incorporates dance, music, and other art forms from the same period. Essential for its seriousness, clarity, and illustrations, her her work will no doubt be the most important text on this subject for quite a while. Recommended for all art, academic, and large public libraries.?Susan M. Olcott, Columbus Coll. of Art & Design, OH
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"...coffee-table size archive of gritty black-and-white images as well as glitzy color ones...invaluable compilation of biographies..." -- Bomb

"...visually arresting coffee-table book." -- Art in America

Indispensable." -- Chicago Tribune

This book...serves as a model for cultural surveys." -- Maurice

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams (October 15, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0810943603
• ISBN-13: 978-0810943605
• Product Dimensions: 11.4 x 10.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #510,858 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ground-breaking book that redefines the study of performance, November 4, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Performance: Live Art Since 1960 (Hardcover)

I have been a fan of RoseLee Goldberg's books for years, but she really has out-done herself with this visually stunning book. She has captured the essence of performance pictorially without diluting the "live-art" aspect of it. Some of her chapters could be called mini-performances, themselves. Goldberg organizes her subject into conceptual chapters that keep the material from falling into strictly a popular phenomenon. A must buy for academics and non-academics alike. A great Christmas gift for an art lover. The pictures in this book are gorgeous and fun. A real treat.