Vito Acconci, father of performance art and body art, passes away

Vito Acconci, an American artist considered among the fathers of performance art and body art, has died in New York at the age of 77. His wife Maria confirmed this to the press. Still unconfirmed, however, was the cause of death: however, the spouse stated that death came after a brief illness.

Acconci, born in New York on January 24, 1940, was one of the most influential artists of the 20th century. He began his career as a poet, but in the 1960s he began making performances (among the most famous Following Piece of 1969, during which for 23 days he followed on foot, each day, a different person chosen at random from the crowd, until the point where the operation became impossible, and again Seedbed, from 1972, a performance in which the artist, while masturbating, spoke from a microphone to the audience), and then continued, in the 1980s, also as a sculptor: an activity continued to the present day (sculptures produced by the i Acconci studio can be found all over the world).

Also beginning in the 1960s, Acconci had taken to using his own body as a support for his works, becoming in fact one of the pioneers of body art. Among the best-known performances in this sense it is possible to mention Conversions of 1971, in which the artist appeared naked with his penis hidden between his legs or posing in feminine poses, thus demonstrating through his body that he could belong to another sex.

Source: New York Times

Photo: Vito Acconci in 1973

Vito Acconci, father of performance art and body art, passes away

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