Since the 1970s, the work of Los Angeles-based artist Paul McCarthy (b. 1945) has included live performance, video, sculpture, kinetic tableaux, and installation. Tracing the development of McCarthy’s work between 1974 and 2013, I undertake a critical discussion of the development of performance in relation to visual art practices. Using one artist’s work as a guide through a number of key discussions in the history of performance art, I argue that performance has influenced every aspect of McCarthy’s artistic practice, and continues to inform critical readings of his work. My thesis follows the trajectory of McCarthy’s performance practice as it has developed through different contexts. I begin with the early documentation and dissemination of performance in the Los Angeles-based magazine High Performance (1978-83), which established a context for the reception of performance art, and for McCarthy’s early work. I then examine specific examples of McCarthy’s practice in relation to his critical reception: live performances and videos from the 1970s are discussed alongside critical readings of his work influenced by psychoanalysis; and the wider public recognition of McCarthy’s object-based art in the 1980s and early 1990s. I then look more broadly at the recent trend of re-enacting historical performances in the Getty’s Pacific Standard Time project (2011-12), as a mode of engaging with performance history and exploring how histories of ephemeral art are re-iterated over time. Finally, I discuss a number of McCarthy’s recent exhibitions and installations that mobilises a wider consideration of the histories of performance and ephemeral practices in art institutions. McCarthy’s work is firmly established in the art world, and I argue that his work also provides a significant touchstone for histories of performance. I look historically at how McCarthy’s work has been documented, disseminated, curated, and re-performed, and open wider discussions about ways of engaging with performance history. In turn, I complicate the relationship between performance and the art world; between ephemeral art and object-based art practices; and between scholarly engagements with performance history, and the public presentation of performance in curatorial practices and institutional contexts.

Dessiner est dans ma pratique une action artistique, politique et sociale de résistance à l’effacement et à la disparition des figures, des personnes. Dans ma pratique, le dessin rend visible et son processus se définit par une action intrinsèque aux mouvements du corps : il suit ses tremblements, s’imprègne de son contexte et trace un lien entre son état intérieur et extérieur. À travers un processus d’actions dessinées, ma recherche questionne l’état de présence, son apparition et sa disparition. Ma pratique du dessin s’est ainsi déplacée pendant la maitrise, en va-et-vient constants de mon atelier vers l’espace public. À l’atelier je dessine en suivant des conditions de création, dans l’espace public, j’invente des espaces dans lesquels j’invite des personnes à se dessiner selon certaines conditions. Nous verrons comment l’action de dessiner permet de s’apparaitre à soi et aux autres. Et comment cette micro action cherche à recréer du lien. Il sera question dans ce mémoire de définir les axes de résistance des actions dessinées et de comprendre en quoi ces actions locales et volontairement rudimentaires agissent dans ma pratique en tant que « perturbateur social »

Este trabalho consiste em investigar as relações entre poética e contexto em duas obras: O padre e a moça (longa-metragem ficcional que Joaquim Pedro de Andrade finalizou em 1965), e o poema (de que Joaquim Pedro se apropria) O padre, a moça (publicado por Carlos Drummond de Andrade em Lição de coisas, de 1962). Como se trata de duas obras profundamente dialogais, a investigação sobre o caráter de empenho estético-ideológico orienta-se, evidentemente, pelo cotejo. O contexto dos 1960 (atravessado pelos dilemas da modernização capitalista dependente e periférica) revela-se fundamental para a compreensão de aspectos temático-formais de ambas as obras (uma, anterior ao Golpe de 1964, a outra, imediatamente posterior). A presença do contexto em ambos os textos, entretanto, exige a compreensão sobre as mediações propriamente artísticas. Para tanto, a pesquisa procura orientar-se pelo método de redução estrutural (desenvolvido por Antônio Candido); nem por isso, abre mão de refletir sobre seus pressupostos teórico-metodológicos (tomados à análise estética, mas também às reflexões sociológicas, historiográficas e filosóficas). / This work is to investigate the relationship between poetic and context in two works: O padre e a moça (fiction feature that Joaquim Pedro de Andrade finished in 1965), and the poem (that Joaquim Pedro appropriates) \"The priest, the girl \" (published by Carlos Drummond de Andrade in lesson of things, 1962). As it is two works deeply dialogical, research on the aesthetic and ideological commitment of character is guided, of course, by collation. The decade of 1960 (crossed by the dilemmas of dependent and peripheral capitalist modernization) is fundamental to the understanding of thematic and formal aspects of both works (one prior to the 1964 Coup, the other immediately later). The presence of the context in both texts, however, requires a proper understanding of mediation art. Therefore, the research seeks to be guided by the structural reduction method (developed by Antônio Candido); even so, waive reflect on their theoretical and methodological assumptions (taken to aesthetic analysis, but also the sociological, historiographical and philosophical reflections).

Este trabalho consiste em investigar as relações entre linguagem poética e contexto em A rosa do povo, coletânea de poemas escritos por Carlos Drummond de Andrade entre 1943 e 1945. Entre os 55 poemas da coletânea, há referências, não apenas semânticas, ao Estado Novo, à Segunda Guerra Mundial, ao Nazi-fascismo e à organização problemática do universo urbano-industrial, sempre duma perspectiva que toma partido da Resistência, segundo a ótica do indivíduo lírico. Caracterizada por uma pluralidade temático-formal irredutível a esquemas estruturais, a coletânea encontra a sua coesão na especificidade do lirismo drummondiano. Ao investigarmos aspectos textuais desse lirismo, procuramos compreender os elementos de mediação entre os planos da forma e do significado. / This text researchs relationships between poetic speech and context in A rosa do povo (1943-1945). The poems on the book refer to Estado Novo, Second World War, Nazi-fascism and the problematic urban-industrial universe, under the perspective of Resistence and from the lyric person point of view, applying semantic and others means. The book characteristic is a specific lyrism, that cannot to be reduced to structural minds. We here attemp, not to form, or means only, but relationshipa features beetween.

Este trabalho consiste em investigar as relações entre linguagem poética e contexto em A rosa do povo, coletânea de poemas escritos por Carlos Drummond de Andrade entre 1943 e 1945. Entre os 55 poemas da coletânea, há referências, não apenas semânticas, ao Estado Novo, à Segunda Guerra Mundial, ao Nazi-fascismo e à organização problemática do universo urbano-industrial, sempre duma perspectiva que toma partido da Resistência, segundo a ótica do indivíduo lírico. Caracterizada por uma pluralidade temático-formal irredutível a esquemas estruturais, a coletânea encontra a sua coesão na especificidade do lirismo drummondiano. Ao investigarmos aspectos textuais desse lirismo, procuramos compreender os elementos de mediação entre os planos da forma e do significado. / This text researchs relationships between poetic speech and context in A rosa do povo (1943-1945). The poems on the book refer to Estado Novo, Second World War, Nazi-fascism and the problematic urban-industrial universe, under the perspective of Resistence and from the lyric person point of view, applying semantic and others means. The book characteristic is a specific lyrism, that cannot to be reduced to structural minds. We here attemp, not to form, or means only, but relationshipa features beetween.

Este trabalho consiste em investigar as relações entre poética e contexto em duas obras: O padre e a moça (longa-metragem ficcional que Joaquim Pedro de Andrade finalizou em 1965), e o poema (de que Joaquim Pedro se apropria) O padre, a moça (publicado por Carlos Drummond de Andrade em Lição de coisas, de 1962). Como se trata de duas obras profundamente dialogais, a investigação sobre o caráter de empenho estético-ideológico orienta-se, evidentemente, pelo cotejo. O contexto dos 1960 (atravessado pelos dilemas da modernização capitalista dependente e periférica) revela-se fundamental para a compreensão de aspectos temático-formais de ambas as obras (uma, anterior ao Golpe de 1964, a outra, imediatamente posterior). A presença do contexto em ambos os textos, entretanto, exige a compreensão sobre as mediações propriamente artísticas. Para tanto, a pesquisa procura orientar-se pelo método de redução estrutural (desenvolvido por Antônio Candido); nem por isso, abre mão de refletir sobre seus pressupostos teórico-metodológicos (tomados à análise estética, mas também às reflexões sociológicas, historiográficas e filosóficas). / This work is to investigate the relationship between poetic and context in two works: O padre e a moça (fiction feature that Joaquim Pedro de Andrade finished in 1965), and the poem (that Joaquim Pedro appropriates) \"The priest, the girl \" (published by Carlos Drummond de Andrade in lesson of things, 1962). As it is two works deeply dialogical, research on the aesthetic and ideological commitment of character is guided, of course, by collation. The decade of 1960 (crossed by the dilemmas of dependent and peripheral capitalist modernization) is fundamental to the understanding of thematic and formal aspects of both works (one prior to the 1964 Coup, the other immediately later). The presence of the context in both texts, however, requires a proper understanding of mediation art. Therefore, the research seeks to be guided by the structural reduction method (developed by Antônio Candido); even so, waive reflect on their theoretical and methodological assumptions (taken to aesthetic analysis, but also the sociological, historiographical and philosophical reflections).