performance art

noun

: a nontraditional art form often with political or topical themes that typically features a live presentation to an audience or onlookers (as on a street) and draws on such arts as acting, poetry, music, dance, or painting

performance artist noun

Examples of performance art in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

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Lorraine O’Grady, an artist who bravely used her conceptual pieces and performance art to critique systems of power, incisively underlining the ways that class, race, and gender influence one another, died at her home in New York on Friday. —

Alex Greenberger, ARTnews.com, 13 Dec. 2024 The dates will take the form of multimedia concerts blending music, visuals, and performance art. —

Jazz Monroe, Pitchfork, 5 Dec. 2024 The fair features a wide range of mediums, including painting, sculpture, photography, video, installation, and performance art. —

Erica Wertheim Zohar, Forbes, 27 Nov. 2024 Born in Belgrade, Yugoslavia (now Serbia) in 1946, Abramović made a name for herself through her provocative performance art. —

Sonja Anderson, Smithsonian Magazine, 15 Oct. 2024 See all Example Sentences for performance art

Word History

First Known Use

1971, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler

The first known use of performance art was in 1971

See more words from the same year

Cite this Entry

Style

“Performance art.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/performance%20art. Accessed 21 Dec. 2024.

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