Childsplay: The Art of Allan Kaprow [Hardcover]

Jeff Kelley (Author), David Antin (Foreword)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0520236718 | ISBN-13: 978-0520236714 | Publication Date: December 7, 2004 | Edition: 1

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. But, above all, as this book reminds us, he has 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.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Described variously as "an avant-garde revolutionary, a radical sociologist, a Zen(ish) monk, a progressive educator and an anti-art theorist," Kaprow is almost as difficult to define as his art, which he considered "un-art." Kaprow created "happenings," which incorporated materials usually dispersed at the end of a performance, as well as the actions of the participants themselves. They ranged from chaotic installation "environments" (Beauty Parlor, The Apple Shrine) and carnivalesque, sometimes menacing, spectacles (Tree, Chicken, Courtyard) to intensely private interactions experienced directly only by those taking part in them (Rates of Exchange, Useful Fictions). None of these, however, can be adequately presented in anything resembling a standard coffee table book, so Kelley instead offers something that is part intellectual biography, part academic criticism. By showing the context within which Kaprow made his forays into the outer reaches of the avant-garde, Kelley helps readers appreciate the contours of the artist’s wide-ranging career. But Kelley’s primary achievement is his painstaking description and analysis of Kaprow’s mature works (from Rearrangable Panels to Seven Environments). Using photos, eyewitness accounts and Kaprow’s own notes and journals, he manages to preserve some measure of Kaprow’s works for posterity, even though their full impact is no longer accessible. Though this book will appeal primarily to artists and art historians who are either interested in Kaprow’s life and work or in the development of performance art after WWII, Kelley’s clear, elegant prose makes it an excellent introduction for readers unacquainted with art theory or criticism.
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Review

"Childsplay is an extraordinary book. Jeff Kelley not only narrates the history of Allan Kaprow's art but also tells the story of art in the last half of the twentieth century from an entirely fresh point of view. He makes sense of performance history in the context of developments in the more traditional art media in a way that I find consistently illuminating." - Henry Sayre, author of The Object of Performance"

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 270 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press; 1 edition (December 7, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520236718
• ISBN-13: 978-0520236714
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 8.9 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,734,161 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars factually useful but methodologically dubious, September 19, 2008

By 

Mutinie "Mutinie" (NYC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Childsplay: The Art of Allan Kaprow (Paperback)

The length of this publication (commented upon in the previous review) is actually rather helpful, as it can be very hard to get a sense of the Happenings from reading Kaprow's articles. Works are analysed and contextualised in a way that I found very helpful. It's also well illustrated. My only reservation is that Kelley overidentifies with Kaprow to the extent that he seems to ventriloquise him, for the most part uncritically: Kaprow's opinions are presented without references or sources. It's as if he dictated the book to Kelley.

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars I am snoring....., November 30, 2007

By 

Khatarnaak Khatun (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Childsplay: The Art of Allan Kaprow (Hardcover)

A catalog of Kaprow's lifework. The author is a big fan of Kaprow. So am I. But was it necessary to overanalyze all his Happenings at such excruciating length? This book could have been a better read at a fifth of the length.