Body as Medium

Performance art took hold in the 1960s and 70s, when artists decided that paint, canvas, and stone were too tame. The new material was the artist's own body, used live in front of witnesses.

The early works were raw. Yoko Ono knelt on a stage and invited the audience to cut away her clothing with scissors. Chris Burden had a friend shoot him in the arm with a rifle. The body itself became the thing on display.

These weren't shock stunts. The artists were attacking the way art gets bought and sold.

A painting can hang on a wall and trade at auction for millions. A live action that happens once, then ends, can't be owned that way. By making art that vanished, performance artists slipped out of the gallery-and-auction system that had turned art into luxury merchandise. The work was meant to be lived, not owned.