Funk art

Funk art is an art movement inspired by popular culture that used an unlikely mixture of materials and techniques, including found objects. It was a reaction against the nonobjectivity of abstract expressionism. The movement’s name is derived from the musical term ‘funky’, describing the passionate, sensuous, and quirky. It was a popular art form in the 1960s and 1970s, mainly in the United States. Funk artists treated their work with humour, confrontation, bawdyness and autobiographical references. They sought to reintroduce social responsibility into contemporary art.

Non-functional ceramic art was an important element in the Funk art movement, especially in Regina and the San Francisco Bay Area. The University of California, Davis, was a center for the movement with many important artists in the Funk movement on faculty such as Robert Arneson, Roy De Forest, Manuel Neri, and William T. Wiley [Smithsonian Archives of American Art, Interview with Bruce Nauman http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/oralhistories/transcripts/nauman80.htm] . Students from University of California, Davis like Margaret Dodd, David Gilhooly, Chris Unterseher and Peter Vandenberge, continued the tradition.

Other important funk artists include:
* Robert Hudson
* Gladys Nilsson
* Jim Nutt

References

* Dempsey, Amy, "Styles, Schools and Movements, The Essential Encyclopaedic Guide to Modern Art", New York, Thames & Hudson, 2005.
* San Jose Museum of Art, "The Lighter Side of Bay Area Figuration", San Jose, California, San Jose Museum of Art, 2000.
* [http://www.canadianclayandglass.ca/ The Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery]

Gallery of funk art