Underground art

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Underground art, as with underground music and underground film, is a term that seeks to describe art forms that are aloof to the mainstream art world, are illegal, taboo, unconventional, rebellious or revolutionary. Underground art usually challenges or rejects the cultural status quo in some way, and may involve extreme doses of originality and experimentation in terms of its content, form or context.
Practitioners of underground art tend to distance themselves with the standards and traditions of mainstream culture, yet mainstream institutions, the mass media and corporations frequently try to associate themselves with so-called cutting edge and underground movements as a way of appealing to young and frequently jaded audiences. Art that is said to be underground may be made mostly in secret, have other artists as its primary audience, or maintain a strong cult following. Some art forms that may be considered underground include graffiti and street art, punk related art and design, protest art, art coming out of the international squat and intentional communities movements and some forms of performance art.
The term underground art can be considered paradoxical in the sense that as soon as specific examples of such art are defined or publicized, they cease to be truly underground anymore.

 Further reading

• Gavin, Francesca (2007), Street Renegades: New Underground Art, Laurence King Publishers, ISBN 9781856695299
• Brus, Gunter and Bianchi, Paolo (2001), Theo Altenberg Theo: The Paradise Experiment - The Utopia of Free Sexuality - Friedrichshof Commune 1973-8, Triton Verlag Publishers, Austria, ISBN 3854860919
• Tzara, Tristan (1916 to 1922), Dada Volumes l and ll, Tristan Tzara Centre du XXe siècle, ISBN 2-902311-17-6 and ISBN 2-902311-19-2