body art

Form of painting that uses the artist's own body as its central tool and material; it is closely related to action art. Body art grew in the late 1960s, and reflected society's more liberal attitudes towards experimentation with sex and drugs, and the discussion of psychosexual subjects. The art form varied considerably in its interpretation, and was usually a live or videotaped ‘event’. It was often influenced by masochism (desire for personal pain or humiliation), and included themes such as self-mutilation. In one notorious example, the body artist Chris Burden had himself shot.