Fluxus (from "to flow") is an art movement noted for the blending of different artistic disciplines, primarily visual art but also music and literature. Fluxus was founded in 1962 by George Maciunas (1931-78), an Lithuanian-American artist who had moved to Germany to escape his creditors. Besides America and Europe, Fluxus also took root in Japan.

Among its members were Joseph Beuys, John Cage, and Yoko Ono who explored media ranging from performance art to poetry to experimental music to film. They took the stance of opposition to the ideas of tradition and professionalism in the arts of their time, the Fluxus group shifted the emphasis from what an artist makes to the artist's personality, actions, and opinions. Throughout the 1960s and '70s (their most active period) they staged "action" events, engaged in politics and public speaking, and produced sculptural works featuring unconventional materials. Their radically untraditional works included, for example, the video art of Nam June Paik and the performance art of Beuys. The often playful style of Fluxus artists led to their being considered by some little more than a group of pranksters in their early years. Fluxus has also been compared to Dada and is seen as the starting point of mail art.

Most notorious are the Fluxus performance pieces or "Event Scores". Fluxus artists differentiate Event Scores from "happenings". Whereas Happenings were meant to blur the lines between performer and audience, performance and reality, Fluxus performances were one-liners and sight gags. The performances sought to elevate the banal and dissemble the high culture of serious music.

Fluxus artists

Many artists have associated themselves with Fluxus over the years, including:

• Ay-O
• Joseph Beuys
• George Brecht
• John Cage
• Philip Corner
• Robert Filliou
• Henry Flynt
• Ken Friedman
• Al Hansen
• Geoffrey Hendricks
• Dick Higgins
• Ruud Janssen
• Ray Johnson
• Alison Knowles
• Jackson Mac Low
• George Maciunas
• Gustav Metzger
• Larry Miller
• Yoko Ono
• Genesis P-Orridge
• Nam June Paik
• Ben Patterson
• Dieter Rot
• Wim T. Schippers
• Carolee Schneeman
• Litsa Spathi
• Daniel Spoerri
• Yasunao Tone
• Ben Vautier
• Wolf Vostell
• Emmett Williams
• La Monte Young

External links

• Fluxlist
• fluxus debris! @ art / not art
• The Fluxus Blog
• Archives of The Fluxlist
• Forty Years of Fluxus, essay by Ken Friedman
• Fluxus Heidelberg Center
• The Copenhagen Fluxus Archive, Knud Pedersen collection

Listening

• UbuWeb Sound Poetry: Fluxus Anthology including pieces by La Monte Young, Alison Knowles, Yoko Ono, John Cage, Philip Corner, Nam June Paik, Joseph Beuys, et al.