Nut Art

English

Alternative forms

• nut art

Etymology

Uncertain but generally credited to artist Roy De Forest in a 1972 Nut Art exhibition catalogue writing.

Noun

Nut Art (uncountable)

1. A minor art movement during the late 1960s and early 1970s that was concerned with self-identification, sometimes involving the creation of a new persona, through fantastical or mythical elements.
   • 1973, David Zack, “An Authentik and Historikal Discourse on the Phenomenon of Mail Art”, in Frank Jewett Mather, editor, Art in America‎^[1], volume 61, page 51:

     Nut Art in fact was a major art-historical invention, as it's ^[sic] the first art movement to consist of fifteen people all working in different styles.

   • 1984, Michael Crane, Mary Stofflet, Correspondence Art: Source Book for the Network of International Postal Art Activity, Contemporary Arts Press, →ISBN, page 112:

     Closely allied to Nut Art was the Chicago Imagist school of painting, also known as the Hairy Who.

   • 2017, Garth Johnson, “Lecture: Fluxing Funk: Nut Art”, in NCECA Journal, volume 38, page 131:

     Although the movement didn't become a household word like Pop or Dada, Nut Art's penchant for blurring the lines between correspondence art, conceptual art, painting, and sculpture has made it a touchstone for a new generation of artists.