In-Action - by Caroline Lillian Schopp (Paperback)

About the Book

"This pioneering book on performance art in Vienna in the 1960s, the first English-language study of Viennese Actionism, offers a vital corrective to the standard narrative of the movement. Noting that the violent, masochistic stunts for which the so-called Actionists gained notoriety were in fact few, author Caroline Lillian Schopp reconsiders their work through the lens of "in-action"-gestures of passivity, vulnerability, and dependence reflecting the sense of impotence emerging from Austria's marginalized status in postwar society and artistic culture. Many of their performances were in fact failures: something would go wrong, performers would give up and leave, scenery would fall apart. When performance fails to take the form of action, what does that mean for art history? This book decenters the traditional focus on the male protagonists of Actionism-Gèunter Brus, Otto Muehl, Hermann Nitsch, and Rudolf Schwarzkogler-through attention to women such as Anna Brus and Hanel Koeck, who were involved in the action but only ambivalently took part. Schopp also considers the Actionists' ongoing interest in scrutinizing intimate relationships, including friendships, marriages, partnerships, and parenting, as well as their engagement with traditional artistic forms such as poetry, painting, and tapestry. In so doing, emerges a fresh and nuanced account with significant implications for the larger history of performance art"--

Book Synopsis

A novel approach to performance art and its history that revisits Viennese Actionism, one of the most controversial episodes of the 1960s.

Viennese Actionism represents a notorious case within art history, often cited but little studied, especially in the United States. By carefully looking at the unsettling performances that define this movement, Caroline Lillian Schopp offers a vital corrective to the narrative. Schopp observes that contrary to the reception of their graphic violence, many performances explore passivity, vulnerability, and dependence in gestures of "in-action." Viennese Actionism registers hesitations about the liberatory ethos of the 1960s, amplified by Austria's marginalized postwar social and artistic culture. In dialogue with feminist theory, In-action assembles a vocabulary for performance art without the standards of self-assertion, emancipation, and expressive action that continue to inform how art and politics are understood today.

Decentering the traditional focus on the male protagonists of Viennese Actionism--Günter Brus, Otto Muehl, Hermann Nitsch, and Rudolf Schwarzkogler--Schopp draws attention to women who performed with them, including Anna Brus, Hanel Koeck, and Ingrid Wiener. Doing so brings into view how these performances scrutinize intimate relationships like marriages, partnerships, and friendships, as well as the conventions of traditional artistic media such as painting and tapestry.

Review Quotes

"Schopp's extraordinary work provides new tools for addressing performance, pushing back against normative standards that have come to dominate the interpretive landscape in performance studies. In-action gives a thick, heady, intimate sense of the density of these artists' ways of working, while avoiding the disgust so characteristic of much of the literature on body art. This makes for bracing reading and serves as a major corrective."--Judith Rodenbeck, author of "Radical Prototypes: Allan Kaprow and the Invention of Happenings"

"This book offers a much-needed reconceptualization of Viennese Actionism, a movement usually remembered for the transgressive aesthetics of its protagonists and easily dismissed as an exercise in provocation. Schopp carefully attends to contributions of its previously neglected participants and offers a fresh vision of Actionism that centers on precariousness, vulnerability, and in-abilities to perform. In-action is an important contribution in the fields of postwar European art, the history and theory of performance art, and German/Austrian studies."--Philipp Ekardt, author of "Toward Fewer Images"

About the Author

Caroline Lillian Schopp is assistant professor of the history of art at Johns Hopkins University. She was previously guest professor of art history, art theory, and aesthetics at the Berlin University of the Arts and a faculty member in art history at the University of Vienna.