performance art

noun

: a nontraditional art form often with political or topical themes that typically features a live presentation to an audience or onlookers (as on a street) and draws on such arts as acting, poetry, music, dance, or painting
performance artist noun

Examples of performance art in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
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The preferred currency of performance art is shock, or so the greatest hits tell us. Zachary Fine, New Yorker, 7 Nov. 2025 Part of how The Actors’ Gang achieves this success is through varied experimental theater techniques, including commedia dell’arte, an ancient form of performance art that teaches its subjects about archetypical characters. Senior Editor, MSNBC Newsweek, 5 Nov. 2025 This recipe is salad as performance art. Shilpa Uskokovic, Bon Appetit Magazine, 31 Oct. 2025 Since founding her label in the 1980s, Rowley has built a brand that spans ready-to-wear, surf and swim, accessories and home goods, while staging runway shows that often double as performance art. Lisa Lockwood, Footwear News, 27 Oct. 2025 See All Example Sentences for performance art

Word History

First Known Use

1971, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of performance art was in 1971

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Cite this Entry

“Performance art.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/performance%20art. Accessed 13 Nov. 2025.

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