Allan Kaprow

This innovative study of two of the most important artists of the twentieth century links the art practices of Allan Kaprow and Robert Smithson in their attempts to test the limits of art--both what it is and where it is. Ursprung provides a sophisticated yet accessible analysis, placing the two artists firmly in the art world of the 1960s as well as in the art historical discourse of the following decades. Although their practices were quite different, they both extended the studio and gallery into desert landscapes, abandoned warehouses, industrial sites, train stations, and other spaces. Ursprung bolsters his argument with substantial archival research and sociological and economic models of expansion and limits.

Documents artist Allan Keprow's life and work through an extensive chronology that visually portrays his evolution from painter to environmental artist to inventor of the Happening and the Activity.

This new interpretation of the structure and meaning of the Happenings produced by Allan Kaprow (1927-2006) and Claes Oldenburg (b. 1929) in the late 1950s and 1960s sheds light on the context, theoretical framework, and working practice unique to this groundbreaking artistic form. Drawing on extensive archival research and including never-before-published drawings by Oldenburg, Robert E. Haywood describes the dialogue - at times contentious - between these two artists about the direction of the Happenings and modern art in general. Through a comprehensive analysis of these often overlooked works, it becomes clear that the Happenings--born in the midst of Cold War tensions and an increased uneasiness with the direction society was taking--challenged the traditional definitions of art in innovative new ways and were a critical component in the development of the art of the 20th century.

This publication catalogues and illustrates, with a wide selection of images, Allan Kaprow's entire body of published work: from his first artist book in 1962, to his last anthological projects in the '90s. This lesser-known side of his œuvre unfolds through 35 books, published over a 40-year span.Kaprow's work moved along two parallel tracks: happenings - a field in which he was an unchallenged pioneer, starting in the '50s - and activity booklets, a tool meant to help people understand and experience these performances. But the graphic layout of his books, the originality of their structure, the literary stature of their texts, and their aesthetic quality as objects shifted his exploration of print into a higher realm, where the book became a fully-fledged work of art.'Booklets are somewhat like music scores: they aren't the actual event but as notations which one or more persons can carry out. So they shouldn't be considered documents of what actually happened.' (Allan Kaprow)

'Childsplay' offers a description of Kaprow's 'Happenings' and other art activities, clarifying their materiality, duration and setting, as well as the ways that people participated in them, and shows that Kaprow's art forms were physically present, socially engaged, and intellectually resonant in the moment of enactment.

"Four characteristic scenarios by the inventor of the Happening concept."--Back cover

In this work, Rodenbeck recovers the critical force of happenings, addressing them both as theoretical objects and as artworks, investigating broader epistemological and formal concerns as well as their material and performative aspects.

By constantly challenging one another to take art "Off Limits," George Brecht, Geoffrey Hendricks, Allan Kaprow, Roy Lichtenstein, Lucas Samaras, George Segal, Robert Watts, and Robert Whitman defied the art world, bringing Abstract Expressionism to a screeching halt and setting the stage for the art of the rest of the century. Off Limits accompanies a major exhibition of the same title at The Newark Museum, February 18 - May 16, 1999.