Childsplay : the art of Allan Kaprow / Jeff Kelley ; with a foreword by David Antin.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kelley, Jeff.

Contributor:

Kaprow, Allan.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Kaprow, Allan--Criticism and interpretation.

Kaprow, Allan.

Happenings (Art)--United States.

Happenings (Art).

Conceptual art--United States.

Conceptual art.

Criticism and interpretation.

United States.

Physical Description:

xxi, 249 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color) ; 26 cm

Other Title:

Child's play

Place of Publication:

Berkeley : University of California Press, [2004]

Summary:

Allan Kaprow has been described as an avant-garde revolutionary, a radical sociologist, a Zen(ish) monk, a progressive educator, and an anti-art theorist. As this book reminds us, however, he has also been an influential artist. Known for his "Happenings," Kaprow created vanguard performances in the early 1960s in which he collaged various art forms (painting, music, dance), disguised as ordinary things (newspaper, noise, body movement), into quasi-theatrical events. In the decades since, his works have remained open to the changing character of contemporary experience, always seeking the thresholds at which art and life converge. Because this art places such emphasis on direct experience, some people today think Kaprow's works were primarily transitory and immaterial. Childsplay corrects that misconception by providing a vivid description of Kaprow's Happenings and other art activities, clarifying their materiality, duration, and setting, as well as the ways in which people participated in them. Jeff Kelley brings the artist, his era, and his work to life by showing that Kaprow's artworks were physically present, socially engaged, and intellectually resonant in the moment of their enactment.

Contents:

Foreword: Allan At Work / David Antin XI

Introduction: Sweeping the Stage 1

1 John dewey and the ranch 5

Schoolboy Puttering

Tape Score

Beauty Parlor

Communication

George Segal's Farm

3 Eighteen happenings in six parts 29

4 Happenings in the new york scene 43

The Big Laugh

Coca Cola, Shirley Cannonball?

Childsplay

The Apple Shrine

A Spring Happening

Yard

A Service for the Dead

Sweeping

5 Hoopla 69

Words

Chicken

Courtyard

Push and Pull

6 On the road 87

Tree

Out

Birds

Paper

Household

Calling

Self-Service

7 Passing through 113

Gas

Pollockland

Fluids

Runner

Transfer

Round Trip

Record II

Arrivals

8 The education of the un-artist, I 139

Course

Project Other Ways

Calarts

Publicity

Feminism

9 The education of the un-artist, II 157

Tracts

Sweet Wall

Scales

Easy

Baggage

Burbank

Meteorology

10 The education of the un-artist, III 179

Highs

Basic Thermal Units

Time Pieces

3rd Routine

Rates of Exchange

Useful Fictions

11 Zen 199

Team

Koans

European Tour Suite

Company

12 Storytelling 209

Tail Wagging Dog

Clean Graffiti

Putting on Your Face

Walking Light on the World

Building Muscles

Another Spit Piece

Trading Dirt

13 Rehearsals 217

Precedings

Seven Environments

Workshops

A Total Act.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 231-[238]) and index.

ISBN:

0520236718

OCLC:

55044597