| Description |
“I have always dreamed of a new art, a really new art … In this different art, the artist takes off from life … Do not look for paintings, sculpture, the dance, or music. The artist disclaims any intention to provide them. Something to take place: a happening.”
Allan Kaprow, 1959.
On October 4, 1959, Allan Kaprow premiered his seminal work “18 Happenings in 6 Parts.” In the small Reuben Gallery, upstairs on Fourth Avenue in New York City, Kaprow combined new electronic music and music theory, the plastic arts, theatre and dance within an innovative structure that demanded audience participation. Kaprow’s ‘happening’ anticipated, and gave form to, the conceptual dialogue of contemporary art. In November 2006, “18 Happening in 6 Parts,” was performed a second time.
André Lepecki’s faithful rendering of “18 Happenings in 6 Parts” is a living work as relevant and groundbreaking today as it was for Allan Kaprow’s audience of 75 invited guests in 1959. This book is a rich visual introduction of both Lepecki’s presentation of Kaprow’s happening and the 2006 exhibition organized and curated by Eva Meyer-Hermann and Stephanie Rosenthal. |