The Case for Performance Art | The Art Assignment | PBS Digital Studios

Dubious of performance art? Break into a cold sweat when you realize it’s about to begin? There’s a reason. Here we present you with a brief history of performance art and attempt to sway you to its potential charms. Let us know if you buy it.

The paintings in the first scene are by Candida Alvarez (www.candidaalvarez.com), from her exhibition 'mambomountain' at Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago. Photo by Tom van Eynde.

And if you’re intrigued and eager to learn more, here’s our recommended reading:
Roselee Goldberg, Performance Art: From Futurism to the Present (Thames & Hudon, 2011)
Roselee Goldberg, Performance: Live Art Since the '60s (Thames & Hudson, 2004)
Claire Bishop, Ed. Participation (Documents of Contemporary Art) (Whitechapel & MIT Press, 2006)
Amelia Jones, Body Art/Performing the Subject (Univ Of Minnesota Press, 1998)
Valerie Cassel Oliver, Ed. Radical Presence: Black Performance in Contemporary Art (Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, 2013)
Paul Schimmel, Out of Actions: Between Performance and the Object, 1949-1979 (Thames & Hudson, 1998)
Sally O'Reilly, The Body in Contemporary Art (Thames & Hudson, 2009)
Tracey Warr, The Artist's Body (Phaidon, 2012)

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