FLUXUS (ITS HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT AND RELATION SHIP TO AVANT-GARDE MOVEMENTS
Today it is fashionable among the avant-garde and the pretending avant-garde to broaden and obscure
the definition of fine arts to some ambiguous realm that includes practically everything. Such broad-
mindedness although very convenient in shortcutting all analytical thought, has nevertheless the
disadvantage of also shortcutting the semantics and thus communication through words. Elimination of
borders makes art nonexistent as an entity, since it is an opposite or the existence of a non-art that
defines art as an entity
Since fluxus activities occur at the border or even beyond the border of art, it is of utmost importance
to the comprehension of fluxus and its development, that this borderline be rationaly defined
Diagram no.1 attempts at such a definition by the process of eliminating categories not believed to be
within the realm of fine arts by people active in these categories
DEFINITION OF ART DERIVED FROM SEMANTICS AND APP LICABLE TO ALL PAST AND PRESENT EXAMPLES.
(definition follows the process of elimination, from broad categories to narrow category
INCLUDE
ELIMINATE
1. ARTIFICIAL:
all human creation
natural events, objects,
sub or un-conscious human acts, (dreams, sleep, death)
2. NONFUNCTIONAL: non essential to survival
production of food, housing, utilities, transportation
maintainance of health, security
non essential to material progress science and technology, crafts.
games, jokes, sports, fine arts.*education, documentation, communication (language)
3. CULTURAL
all with pretence to significance, games, jokes, gags, sports
profundity, seriousness, greatness,
institutional value, exclusiveness.
FINE ARTS** only
literary, plastic, musical, kinetic.
* Past history shows that the less people have leisure, the less their concern for all these leisure activities.
Note the activities in games, sports and fine arts among aristocrats versus coal miners.
**Dictionary definition of fine arts: "art which is concerned with the creation of objects of imagination
and taste for their own sake and without relation to the utility of the object produced."
Since the hi storical development of fluxus and related movements are not linear as a chronological
commentary would be, but rather planometrical, a diagram would describe the development and
relationships more efficiently
Diagram no.2 (relationships of various post-1959 avant-garde movements)
Influences upon various movements is indicated by the source of influence and the strength of influence
(varying thicknesses of connecting links)
Within fluxus group there are 4 categories indicated:
1) individuals active in similar activities prior to formation of fluxus collective, then becoming active
within fluxus and still active up to the present day, (only George Brecht and Ben Vautier fill this
category)
2) individuals active since the formation of fluxus and still active within fluxus
3) individuals active independently of fluxus since the formation of fluxus, but presently within fluxus;
4) individuals active within fluxus since the formation of fluxus but having since then detached themselves
on following motiv ations:
a) anticollective attitude, excessive individualism, desire for personal glory, prima dona complex
(Mac Low, Schmit, Williams, Nam June Paik, Dick Higgins, Kosugi),
b) opportunism, joining rival groups offering greater publicity (Paik, Kosugi,
c) competitive attitude, forming rival operations (Higgins, Knowles, Paik).
These categories are indicated by lines leading in or out of each name. Lines leading away from the fluxus
column indicate the approximate date such individuals detached themselves from fluxus
GAG
CHARLIE CHAPLIN
SPIKE JONES
HOFFMAN
MILAN KNIZAK
TAKAKO SAITO
ERIC ANDERSEN
JOE JONES
WILLEM DE RIDDER
GEORGE MACIUNAS
PHILIP CORNER
DICK HIGGINS
JEFF BERNER
SHIGEKO KUBOTA
FREDERIC LIEBERMAN
ALISON KNOWLES
BENJAMIN PATTERSON ,
NAM JUNE PAIK
JACKSON MAC LOW KOSUGI
TOMAS SCHMIT
EMMETT WILLIAMS
HI RED CENTER
YOKO ONO
BEN VAUTIER
LA MONTE YOUNG
RAY JOHNSON
SIMONE MORRIS
STRUCTURAL SIMPLICITYWALTER DE MARIA HENRY FLYNT
ROBERT MORRIS
2JOSEPH BEUYS
z STANLEY BROUWN
USE OF READY MADE
WALTER DE MARIA
ARTHUR KaPCKE
TAKEHISA KOSUG
ROBERT MORRIS
TOMAS SCHMIT
EMMETT WILLIAMS
LA MONTE YOUNG
GIUSEPPE CHIAR
BRUITISM INDETERMINACY PHILIP CORNER
CIA
TOSHI ICHIY
PIERRE MERCURE
RICHARD MAXFIELD
MERCE CUNNINGHAM
ANN HALPRIN
VONNE RAINER
AILEEN PASSLOFF
JACKSON MAC LOW
EMMETT WILLIAMS
NAM JUNE PAIK
KEN DEWEY
BENGT AF KLINTBERG
ALLAN KAPROW
CLAES OLDENBURG
JIM DINE
ROBERT WHITMAN
AL HANSEN
z VISUAL THEATRICAL EFFECTS
SIMULTANEITY OF UNRELATED ACTS
SYNTHETIC STRUCTURAL COMPLEXITY
e
n MIXTURE OF MEDIA
