Allan Kaprow was an American Performance Artist and Theoretician (Aug. 23, 1927- April 5, 2006). Kaprow began his creative explorations through painting, but by the 1950s he had become heavily interested in theory, specifically on concepts of space and the complexities in the experience of the viewer. He focused more on the theory side of art and less on producing a concrete or object-based art piece. Kaprow's "happenings," an unprecedented form of performance art that he created changed and evolved, new and existing concepts and ideas in the art world of the 1960s. "Happenings" occurred throughout different locations such as galleries and lofts where he invited the viewers to be a part of the art that was happening. His "happenings" broke boundaries in art, broadening the definition of art as not only an object or final product that can be hung and displayed, but rather it be anything at all such as movement, sounds and noises, even smell which sounds funny.
ALLAN KAPROW
The evolution of Kaprow's "happenings" all started in the late 1950s. Kaprow had began experimenting with the first stages of what would later become known as performance art, but at the time he called them action collages. He wasn't satisfied with the sound elements in his weirdly designed projects so he reached out to musician John Cage. Cage invited Kaprow to one of his music composition classes and that was the commencement of their unprecedented collaborations. Cage was assigned to create a piece of music for homework and then Kaprow created these scripted and participative events that ultimately eliminated audiences, making them all participants to his creation called Happenings. He started out with small groups of people participating in his spontaneous "event", but by 1959 he presented to a much larger audience at the Reuben Gallery in New York, the event was titled 18 Happenings in 6 Parts. Usually when audience members would first arrive to the events, they were handed a program which contained all the information they needed to know such as (to name a few) , when to sit or stand up, when to applaud, when to walk to the different rooms which contained pretty mundane performances such as someone brushing their teeth, painters painting, people playing instruments, and all the events always ended with a bell being rung twice.
I feel like Allan Kaprow purposefully brought everyday, mundane tasks and activities to the viewers/ participants in attempts to have them see these familiar events in a completely new and refreshing artistic light. I feel like the distortion, repetition, and/or the embellishment of visuals, movements, sounds, and scents is what successfully gave the participants the opportunity to experience everyday events in a new way which allowed them to give significance to the smallest and most basic things in life.
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Being a dancer myself I agree with Kaprow's perspectives on art, artmaking, and the experiences and interconnections between artist and viewer. I undoubtedly consider the power of movement and its expressions to be art. Movement can heal and nurture the mind, body, and soul. I recognize dance as movement art. Yes the final product isn't something that can be contained to always exist (except in the form of video), but performance art (dancing too) is more about the experience of the viewer, as well as the mover (the one experimenting)... And letting the lasting impression stay in your mind and soul, as opposed to it physically staying in a gallery. Although it is more complicated than this since Kaprow has reinstalled his pieces in museums. I am open to considering all forms and concepts as art, depending on my personal experience. See if Kaprow's performance art consisted of acting and people playing someone they are not, then I would consider his work to be theatre.. Still artistic but then falling under a different category, not to be considered "performance art."
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