BEST PERFORMANCE ARTISTS FROM 1986: Acconci, Hsieh, Paik, Anderson, Moorman, Wegman

From our newsletter archives — Originally published February 1, 2024. New items added.

The film industry has the Oscar, Broadway has the Tony, so why can’t avant-garde performance artists also receive awards?  That was the reasoning behind “The ARTIES,” an award ceremony/fundraiser initiated by the downtown alternative space, Franklin Furnace on its 10th Anniversary in 1986.  The invitation for the gala event featured Robert Mapplethorpe’s “uplifting” photograph of body builder Lisa Lyon.

Actress Lily Tomlin was the MC for the event, and Franklin Furnace founder and performance artist Martha Wilson co-hosted, disguised as “Nancy Reagan.” According to Wilson the ARTIES was “a lighthearted crash-course in 20th century avant-garde art.”  In addition to honoring leading contemporary performance artists, the ceremony also paid tribute to the Futurist Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, credited as the inventor of performance art.

A good time was had by all but the first annual Arties proved also to be the last. See below for ephemera connected to some of the 1986 award recipients.

See more Franklin Furnace ephemera.

Vito Acconci

Vito Acconci (1940-2017) earned his ARTIE for pioneering “Body Art” in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Often transgressive and deliberately provocative, Acconci’s performances were usually private but they reached larger groups through his innovative use of video documentation.

More Vito Acconci ephemera

Tehching (Sam) Hsieh & Linda Montano

Tehching “Sam” Hseih was perhaps the most talked about performance artist in the early 1980s. His series of grueling year-long performances included living in a cage, punching a time clock every hour, and living completely outdoors without ever going indoors. For his collaboration with performance artist Linda Montero, they spent a year attached by an 8-foot rope but were not allowed to ever touch.

More Tehching (Sam) Hsieh & Linda Montano ephemera

Laurie Anderson

The musician and multi-media performance artist Laurie Anderson was able to switch from art gallery performances to larger stages when her record “O Superman” became a surprise hit in 1981.  Over the years, her productions grew in both size and ambition.  At first, she was the only person on stage, but for the multimedia “Songs and Stories from Moby Dick” (1999) there were multiple performers, as well as, an ambitious travel schedule that included BAM, the Spoleto Festival and other venues.

More Laurie Anderson ephemera

Nam June Paik & Charlotte Moorman

Nam June Paik (1932 – 2006) found his inspiration as an avant-garde musician and video-art pioneer through the Zen infused philosophy of composer John Cage. Paik often collaborated with Charlotte Moorman (1933-1991), a classically trained cellist who became a central player in the Fluxus art community after she founded the long-running Avant Garde Festival of New York in 1963.

More Nam June Paik ephemera

William Wegman & Man Ray

For much of his career William Wegman partnered with his dog Man Ray, creating humorous photographs and videotapes that featured the well-trained Weimaraner reacting to human situations with a deadpan expression.  Although Wegman also created paintings and other forms of art, his work with dogs was by far the most successful. After 1986 Man Ray was replaced by the equally photogenic Fay Ray.

More William Wegman ephemera

Martha Wilson (Redy Story)

Martha Wilson was not only the founder of Franklin Furnace and the force behind the ARTIES, she was also a successful performance artist. To distinguish between her different roles, in 1984 she started performing as Redy Story, the pseudonym she used for her Nancy Reagan impersonation at the ARTIES. In 2021 Wilson’s early work as performance artist was the subject for an exhibition at the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

More Martha Wilson ephemera

See more Franklin Furnace ephemera.