Description
Funk art is an American art movement that was a reaction against the nonobjectivity of abstract expressionism. An anti-establishment movement, Funk art brought figuration back as subject matter in painting again rather than limiting itself to the non-figurative, abstract forms that abstract expressionists such as Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko were depicting. The movement's name was derived from the jazz musical term "funky", describing the passionate, sensuous, and quirky. During the 1920s, jazz was thought of as very basic, unsophisticated music, and many people believed Funk was an unrefined style of art as well. The term funk also had negative connotations because the word had an association with a foul odor. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Funk was a popular art form, mainly in California's Bay Area in the United States. Read more ↗
Key Artists
Robert Arneson
'Father of the Ceramic Funk movement' who elevated clay from utilitarian craft to satirical, irreverent, and autobiographical fine art.
Bruce Conner
Pioneering Bay Area assemblage artist and experimental filmmaker whose dark, sculptural collages of found materials helped lay the groundwork for Funk art.
Jay DeFeo
Prominent Beat and Funk figure in San Francisco whose heavily layered, visceral paintings and assemblages bridged Bay Area abstraction with Funk materiality.
Peter Voulkos
Ceramic artist who revolutionized clay by slashing, tearing, and stacking stoneware vessels, deeply influencing Northern California Funk sculptors.
Roy De Forest
Bay Area painter and educator known for his eccentric, colorful canvases packed with fantastical dogs, beasts, and irreverent folklore.
William T. Wiley
Key Northern California artist whose whimsical assemblages and wordplay-filled paintings exemplified Funk's anti-establishment humor and narrative freedom.
Famous Artworks
Scale
Robert Arneson · 1965
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) - Glazed earthenware
BREAKAWAY
Bruce Conner · 1966
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) - 16mm film (black and white, sound)
Anada
Peter Voulkos · 1968
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) - Stoneware with iron slip and clear glaze
Untitled
Roy De Forest · 1965
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C. - Lithograph and embossment on paper
After Image
Jay DeFeo · 1970
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) - Oil, acrylic, and graphite on hardboard
Fun Facts
The movement's name was derived from the jazz musical term 'funky,' meaning earthy, passionate, sensuous, and unrefined, which curators felt perfectly described Northern California's rejection of slick East Coast Minimalism.
↗ Source: en.wikipedia.org
Peter Selz organized the landmark 1967 'Funk' exhibition at the University Art Museum in Berkeley, which formally defined the movement and brought national attention to the irreverent Bay Area ceramic and assemblage artists.
↗ Source: en.wikipedia.org
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