Allan Kaprow
Kunst als leven Art as Life
10.02-22.04.07
VAN ABBEMUSEUM
TU SU 11:00 17:00
TH 11.00 21:00
BILDERDIJKLAAN 10
EINDHOVEN – THE NETHERLANDS
31 [0]40 238 1000
info@vanabbemuseum.nl
www.vanabbemuseum.nl
www.kaprow.org
Allan Kaprow, father of happenings and the most famous unknown artist died in April 2006. In association with the Haus der Kunst, Munich, the Van Abbemuseum organises the largest European solo presentation of the work of this American artist, displaying a development of almost 50 years of artistic work. The concept for this exhibition was developed together with the artist shortly before his death. Much of Kaprows art is special because it is interactive, intended to be carried out by people. The exhibition consists of a range of objects from Kaprows artistic legacy on view as well as a number of happenings in which visitors can participate. The Van Abbemuseums artistic policy is to exhibit major overview exhibitions of artists from the sixties and seventies, who are the classics of today.
The theme of the Allan Kaprow ‘Kunst als leven Art as Life’ exhibition is the paradoxical question of how museums can display art in an appropriate manner in this day and age, while approaching real life with art as closely as possible. A range of objects from Kaprows artistic legacy will be displayed: early paintings, environments, video documents and photographs, as well as a fast array of original scores for his happenings and activities.
This special presentation is not intended as an attempt to rewrite or document history, but to encourage visitors to see the museum as mediation. Kaprow was never interested in passively consumptive viewers but in active participation. The Van Abbemuseum is both a place of mediation and an agency of action. The exhibition will entail a re-enactment of a selection of happenings on condition, however, that the visitors understand their new role and participate.
ALLAN KAPROW
Towards the end of the 1950s, American artist Allan Kaprow (1927-2006) coined the term happenings for a new art form. A decade earlier, Kaprow had studied philosophy and subsequently art history with Meyer Shapiro in New York. At the same time he studied art with Hans Hofmann. It was while following composition classes with John Cage at the New School for Social Research in 1956/57 that he discovered he could use coincidence as well as everyday materials in his art. His work metamorphosed from expressionist scenes of figures through raw assemblies of materials to room-filling environments. With audiences participating, events took place in these configured spaces from the late 50s onwards. Kaprow succeeded in doing what many painters and sculptors had endeavoured to achieve before him: the dissolution of the boundaries between art and reality. He accomplished the move into reality in such a radical fashion that his happenings which he later relabelled activities became indistinguishable from real life. During this process the artist drew back more and more from the institutions. To him, museums were burial chambers of art that no longer had anything to do with life.
HAPPENINGS
During the exhibition various happenings will take place in and outside the Van Abbemuseum. Participation is a must. For more information, dates and reservations, visit www.kaprow.org.
CURATOR
Exhibition concept: Eva Meyer-Hermann & Stephanie Rosenthal
Van Abbemuseum exhibition curator: Eva Meyer-Hermann
The exhibition Allan Kaprow ‘Kunst als leven Art as Life’ is a cooperation with Haus der Kunst, Munich, and co-sponsored by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. The project has been carried out within the framework of TRANSFORM and with the support of the Culture 2000 programme of the European Union.
