performance art

American  

noun

1. a collaborative art form originating in the 1970s as a fusion of several artistic media, as painting, film, video, music, drama, and dance, and deriving in part from the 1960s performance happenings.

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performance art British  

noun

1. a theatrical presentation that incorporates various art forms, such as dance, sculpture, music, etc

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Other Word Forms

• performance artist
  noun

Etymology

Origin of performance art

First recorded in 1970–75

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

performance art

Even “Straight White Men,” which uses the old home-for-the-holidays genre as a springboard, can’t help spinning away from the drama’s droll hyper-naturalism toward something resembling performance art.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 29, 2026

Further events will take place later in the month and throughout the summer to celebrate Eric - including a family special educational needs session, a musical tribute and performance art project.

From BBC ● May 14, 2026

That is, of course, assuming there is some kind of larger strategy in play here and this isn’t some kind of performance art.

From Salon ● May 12, 2026

This past January, the Performance Art Museum, a roving museum devoted to spreading awareness around performance art in L.A. and beyond, launched a two-year conference around the history of High Performance and the magazine.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 5, 2026

“No one ever understands performance art when it’s on the cutting edge.”

From "Landscape with Invisible Hand" by M.T. Anderson