{{unreferenced, date=May 2010 An unjuried or open access art exhibition or festival is one where all submissions are accepted. Within theater, it is often referred to as a

fringe festival Fringe theatre is theatre that is produced outside of the main theatre institutions, and that is often small-scale and non-traditional in style or subject matter. The term comes from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.Kemp, Robert, ''More that is Fre ...

, following the unjuried

Edinburgh Festival Fringe The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as The Fringe, Edinburgh Fringe, or Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest arts and media festival, which in 2019 spanned 25 days and featured more than 59,600 performances of 3,841 dif ...

History

Traditionally gatherings have had varying degrees of inclusiveness and exclusiveness, hence broadly speaking, the notion of a " juried" or "unjuried" gathering dates to prehistory. More narrowly, the notion of an unjuried exhibition arose in response to the

Paris Salon The Salon (french: Salon), or rarely Paris Salon (French: ''Salon de Paris'' ), beginning in 1667 was the official art exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Between 1748 and 1890 it was arguably the greatest annual or biennial art ...

, which began in 1725 and was juried from 1748 onwards. The Salon was very influential in the western world during the period 1748–1890 as an arbiter of taste, and the revolt against its strictures was a key conflict in the development of western art. An exhibitions of works refused from the official Salon was referred to as a

Salon des Refusés The Salon des Refusés, French for "exhibition of rejects" (), is generally known as an exhibition of works rejected by the jury of the official Paris Salon, but the term is most famously used to refer to the Salon des Refusés of 1863. Today, by ...

, which became particularly prominent from 1863 onwards, when the French government under Emperor

Napoléon III Napoleon III (Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was the first President of France (as Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte) from 1848 to 1852 and the last monarch of France as Emperor of the French from 1852 to 1870. A nephew ...

funded a Salon des Refusés for the large number of rejected artworks in that year. 1884 saw the formation of the

Société des Artistes Indépendants The Société des Artistes Indépendants (''Society of Independent Artists'') or Salon des Indépendants was formed in Paris on 29 July 1884. The association began with the organization of massive exhibitions in Paris, choosing the slogan "''sans ...

(Society of Independent Artists), whose device was ''Sans jury ni récompense'' (Without jury nor awards), and which has run unjuried art exhibits from 1884 to the present day, under the title of ''Salon des Indépendants'' (Independents Salon). The development of these rejected or unjuried exhibits was key in the development of the

avant-garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...

in painting, particularly the

Ecole de Paris The School of Paris (french: École de Paris) refers to the French and émigré artists who worked in Paris in the first half of the 20th century. The School of Paris was not a single art movement or institution, but refers to the importance ...

(Paris School), with the SAI being particularly prominent during the

Gilded Age In United States history, the Gilded Age was an era extending roughly from 1877 to 1900, which was sandwiched between the Reconstruction era and the Progressive Era. It was a time of rapid economic growth, especially in the Northern and Weste ...

, until

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. In theater, unjuried festivals rose to prominence in the second half of the twentieth century, most prominently in the

Criteria

Despite declaring no criteria for inclusion, some unjuried exhibits or festivals have constraints on genre. Thus, while they may accept any work of art, they may reject an object as "not art". Notoriously, Marcel Duchamp's ''

Fountain A fountain, from the Latin "fons" (genitive "fontis"), meaning source or Spring (hydrology), spring, is a decorative reservoir used for discharging water. It is also a structure that jets water into the air for a decorative or dramatic effect. ...

'' was rejected from an unjuried art exhibition in 1917 as "not being art" – this being a stunt staged by Duchamp to challenge the conventional (even within the avant-garde) definition of "art".

History

Criteria

See also