What Is Performance Art?
A timeline of the most pivotal moments in the medium’s history.
By Julia Halperin
April 17, 2026
“The term ‘performance art’ is a little overused,” admits the curator Klaus Biesenbach, 59. “It’s a bit like how everyone uses the word ‘curator.’” Ever since the Serbian artist Marina Abramović took up residence in the atrium of the Museum of Modern Art in New York every day for two and a half months in 2010 (in a show he organized) — and visitors recorded the action from every angle on their iPhones — performance art has captured the public’s imagination. Yet an accurate definition of the term isn’t always clear. The curator RoseLee Goldberg has described performance art as “live art by artists.” The
performance artist Martha Wilson, 78, calls it an intervention that happens “in real time,” often placing the artist’s body at the center of the action. But it may be easier to define performance art by what it isn’t. It’s not a concert, or theater or an event. It lacks a clear narrative. “It has more of a sculptural quality,” Biesenbach says. “You walk around it. If the artist creates a moment that makes you aware of the here and now, of your own human condition, then I think you can use that term.” ( … )