Allan Kaprow

Christophe Daviet-Thery would be delighted to welcome you to the next exhibition by

Allan Kaprow  books and posters

at the gallery on 1th June – 21th July, 2012.

Allan Kaprow (1927-2006) is essentially known for his Happenings, the first of which, “Eighteen Happenings in Six Parts”, took place in October 1959 at the Reuben Gallery in New York, but we should also mention the less well-known aspect of his work represented by the production of books, booklets and pamphlets, produced over a period of nearly thirty years between 1962 and 1992 , to which Giorgio Maffei devoted the book titled Allan Kaprow: A Bibliography, which provides the thread of this show.

Many publications which appeared in the 1970s, when artistic praxis changed, in particular by getting away from the gallery and institution setting, can be regarded as a way of recording, documenting and describing a performative gesture, an experience really viewable by and accessible to few people. One thinks especially of some of Richard Long’s publications in their relationship to displacement.

With Allan Kaprow, the publication was akin to a notice of “re-activation” for a happening, like a user’s manual. In this respect, Allan Kaprow explains this “possibility” of re-activation in Air Condition published in 1975:

« […] The photos reproduced here are not documents.They are illustrations accompanying the verbal program and are intentionally neutral in order not to confuse «program» with subjective experience. Together such text-picture linkages can be read and enacted as the equivalent of a film scenario or football game plan […]» 

As a complement to this set of publications, a set of posters will also be shown, which Allan Kaprow used to announce some of his happenings.

Special thanks to Christoph Schifferli, Giorgio Maffei, Sylvia Bandi at Hauser & Wirth Gallery, and Tamara Bloomberg, Allan Kaprow Estate.

Please contact us for more information.

© rebecca fanuele