ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an analysis of the revolution in the visual arts that took place in the 1960s, led by artists in the United States (US). Jerzy Ludwinski, art historian, critic and curator, identifies two main currents in 1960s radical art in the US: destructive art and the post-Constructivist tradition. Having established this duality, Ludwinski goes on to say that it is artificial, as two tendencies are overlapping, and the result is “impossible art”. Though the evolution of art is a continuous process, it is interrupted by revolutions and breakthroughs. The chapter discusses the fourth revolution in the development of art, which took place in the 1960s. The structure of that revolution, if it can be presented in a systematic way at all, was shaped by two basic groups of artistic phenomena. The origin of ephemeral art can be found in the group involved in visual experiments and in Dadaist practice.
