Invention: Media and Performance - Essay Example

Andy Warhol is one of the most well known, and celebrated artists of the 20th centuries. He was mostly known for his widely varied artistic subject matter throughout his career, mostly, his clearly colored celebrity portraits. In as far as, media is concerned; Andy Warhol transitioned and transformed from a hand painting to screen-printing, and later pop art where he facilitated large-scale duplication of pop culture images. This went against the artistic norms of genius and authenticit. He is known for acknowledging the commodification of art.

Most of Andy Warhol works challenged the conventional forms of visual arts such as sculpture and painting. This, in itself, is the main purpose of performance art. Andy Warhol was one of the artists in the 20th century who also ventured into filmmaking. However, most of his films were never released commercially. Some of them were considered avant-garde cinema landmarks. Most of his early films were like paintings rather than conventional movies. These early films had no characters and dialogue and as such were not considered traditional.

Performance artists have audiences who are not in search of entertainment, rather, they expect performances that provoke and challenge them (The Art Story ). Consider the works of Yoko Ono, a pop artist, inspired by the artworks of John Cage, who flourished in the 1960’s. In her Cut Piece performance, Ono kneels on stage, wearing a suit, in front of her, lays a pair of scissors. In this performance, members of the audience are, one, at a time, invited to approach the stage and cut her clothes off, bit by bit (Concannon 83).

This performance piece by Ono can be sub-categorized under the new genre of body art. Ono is considered as one of the pioneers of the relationship between performance and body art alongside Nam June Paike (Concannon 89). Another artist known for his contribution to the genre of performance art is John Cage. He was an influential and creative performing artist who influenced many artists, the flux, and the minimalist art movements in the 1960s. He is best known for his 4’33” composition and performance, which deliberately performed with the absence of sounds.

Characters presenting the said work do so without making any sounds despite being present for the duration of the performance as specified in the title (Kozinn). An intriguing fact about this performance by John Cage is that, the content of the 4’33” composition is not the assumed four and a half minutes of silence but the sounds heard by the audience from the environment during the duration of the performance. As earlier mentioned, John Cages 4’33” meets the purpose of performance art of not entertaining the audience, but challenging and provoking them.

It provocative nature in as far as musical experience made it one of the most controversial and popular art works (Kozinn). Comparing the works of these three artists, Andy Warhol, Yoko Ono, and John Cage; it is clear that, they all ventured into performing art as a means of rejuvenating their work, given that they had been dissatisfied with traditional art. John Cage and Yoko Ono, in their performances, 4’33” and Cut Piece respectively, are somewhat similar in the sense that, they are both not entertaining but provocative and challenge their audiences.

The differences between