5 Artists Who Anticipated Festivus

Happy Festivus everyone!

Festivus is a secular holiday celebrated on December 23 as a way to celebrate the holiday season without participating in its pressures and commercialism. It was created by writer Dan O’Keefe and introduced into popular culture by his son Daniel, a screenwriter for the TV show Seinfeld, as part of a comical storyline on the show. [via Wikipedia]

Clockwise from top left: Wikipedia’s example of a Festivus pole, Barnett Newman’s “Here III” (1965-66), (1969), Hans Haacke, “Ice Stick” (1966), Dan Flavin “Untitled” (1976), pole dancers — like Elizabeth Berkley in Showgirls (1995) or Jennifer Beals in Flashdance (1983) — and Richard Serra’s “Floor Pole Prop” (1969).

I know that New York state doesn’t recognize pole dancers as artists but I do. They’re proto-performance artists IMHO.

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• Barnett Newman
• Dan Flavin
• Hans Haacke
• pole dancing
• Richard Serra