Vito Acconci, performance and video artist, has created seminal works of art in the truest sense of the word. Particularly considering his most notorious performance, "Seedbed" (1971), which involved Acconci masturbating on the Sonnabend Gallery floor. For "Seedbed" Acconci performed beneath a sloped

Body art, Bombast, Erotic, In-your-face, Perverse, Profane, Religious

Revolutionizing journalism, Hunter S. Thompson created his own brand of reporting -- more like reportage from a cockroach's-eye-view -- with an exaggerated style that reflected the chaotic period of American history he was not just observing but living. Thompson, never a proponent of moderation, thre

Beats, Cyberpunk fiction, Excessive, Hallucinatory, Journalism, Neurotic, New journalism & gonzo, Profane, Psychedelic, Trippy

From an early age, Joyce disdained what he saw as the shabby Philistinism of his birthplace, Dublin, rejecting the Catholicism that dominated Irish culture in favor of a literary faith and a rebel's stance. Absolutely convinced of his genius, Joyce left for self-imposed exile in Europe in 1904, and b

Composed, Excessive, Expansive, Formless, Layered, Modernist literature, Moody, Playful, Postmodern fiction, Profane, Religious, Sprawling, Subtle

If Postmodernism raises low art to the level of high art, it also allows folks who control the media to cash in on subcultural trends: Rap, grunge, vogueing, whatever. Andy Warhol made a joke of it, but Keith Haring turned the tables. When this Graffiti artist lifted his brush to the walls of subways

Cartoonish, Graffitists and cartoonists, Homoerotic, In-your-face, Kinetic, Playful, Political, Pop, Profane, Queer art