Abramovic-Isms

A collection of fascinating and provocative quotations from the world-renowned performance artist

Marina Abramovic is arguably the most important and influential performance artist of our time. For decades, she has broken boundaries in iconic works such as The Artist Is Present (2010), where she sat in silence across from members of the public at the Museum of Modern Art for eight hours a day for three months, and Rhythm 0 (1974), a six-hour performance in which she stood next to a table holding seventy-two objects, including a scalpel and a loaded gun, and a sign suggesting audience members could do to her whatever they wanted. Gathered from interviews, lectures, writings, and other sources, Abramovic-isms is a unique collection of quotations that offers a window into the mind of this iconic trailblazer.

＂Artists have to be free human beings. They have to have the complete freedom to express their ideas with no restrictions.＂

＂Our body is an absolute replica of the Universe, and this is why I took to studying myself--by studying myself, I can understand everything else and everybody else.＂

＂Beauty doesn’t have a definition. What is important is what moves you.＂

＂Don’t ever call me the grandmother of performance art. Just call me a warrior.＂

Marina Abramovic’s work has been performed in art museums and venues around the world, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Centre Pompidou, and the Venice Biennale, among many others. She is the author of Walk Through Walls: A Memoir and has been the subject of many other books. Larry Warsh has been active in the art world for more than thirty years as a publisher and artist-collaborator. He is the editor of many books, including The Notebooks of Jean-Michel Basquiat, Judy Chicago-isms, Warhol-isms, and Weiwei-isms (all Princeton).