Artist: Allan Kaprow (1927 - )
Nationality: American
Movement:
Media: Performance Art
Influences:

Biography:
Allan Kaprow is mostly known as the inventor of “happenings,” a concept of performance art. He studied under a variety of teachers including musician John Cage, who gave him the idea of chance in aesthetic organization. Initially a painter, Kaprow abandoned the medium for assemblage and environmental art in the 1950’s. In a 1958 article in Art News, he introduced his idea of happenings, stating that craftsmanship and permanence should be forgotten and perishable materials should be used in art. His first happenings exhibition occurred at Reuben Gallery, New York a year later.

Artworks in Museum Collections: (40)
Click the artwork titles below to see actual examples of artwork or works of art relevant to works by Allan Kaprow.

Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco -
Allan Kaprow, untitled, plate on p. 100 in the book, 1¢ Life ([Bern: E. W. Kornfeld, 1964]), 1964
Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco -
Allan Kaprow, untitled, plate on p. 101 in the book, 1¢ Life ([Bern: E. W. Kornfeld, 1964]), 1964
Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco -
William Allan, Trout, 1973
Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco -
William Allan, Tomales, 1975
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James Peale - The Ambush of Captain Allan McLane 1803 oil on canvas Utah Museum of Fine Arts American
Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco -
William Allan, William Allan/ Recent Watercolors and Paintings/ the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco/ California Palace of the Legion of Honor/ 20 July through 8 September 1974, 1974
Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco -
Nathan Oliveira, To Edgar Allan Poe, 1971
Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco -
Allan D"Arcangelo, Landscape I, pl. 4 from Eleven Pop Artists, Vol. I, 1965
Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco -
Nathan Oliveira, [Plate] I from the suite, To Edgar Allan Poe, 1970
Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco -
Nathan Oliveira, [Plate] II from the suite, To Edgar Allan Poe, 1970
Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco -
Nathan Oliveira, [Plate] III from the suite, To Edgar Allan Poe, 1970
Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco -
Nathan Oliveira, [Plate] IV from the suite, To Edgar Allan Poe, 1970
Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco -
Nathan Oliveira, [Plate] V from the suite, To Edgar Allan Poe, 1971
Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco -
Nathan Oliveira, [Plate] VI from the suite, To Edgar Allan Poe, 1971
Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco -
Nathan Oliveira, [Plate] VII from the suite, To Edgar Allan Poe, 1971
Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco -
David Allan, Preaching in the Collosseum at Rome, 18th century
Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco -
Nathan Oliveira, Untitled from Edgar Allan Poe portfolio, 1971
Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco -
Nathan Oliveira, Untitled from Edgar Allan Poe portfolio, 1971
Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco -
Nathan Oliveira, Untitled from Edgar Allan Poe portfolio, 1971
Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco -
Nathan Oliveira, Untitled from Edgar Allan Poe porfolio, 1971
Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco -
Nathan Oliveira, Untitled from Edgar Allan Poe porfolio, 1971
Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco -
Nathan Oliveira, Untitled from Edgar Allan Poe porfolio, 1971
Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco -
Nathan Oliveira, Untitled from Edgar Allan Poe porfolio, 1971
Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco -
Nathan Oliveira, [Plate] IIIA from the suite, To Edgar Allan Poe, 1970
Museum of Fine Arts -
David Allan, Scottish, 1744-1796 Frontispiece designed by Allan Ramsay, Scottish, 1713-1784 Poet Ramsay [Book] Allan
Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco -
Allan D"Arcangelo, Landscape III, plate 2 from the portfolio Eleven Pop Artists, Vol. III, 1965
Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco -
Nathan Oliveira, Untitled (Artist"s proof III A) from Edgar Allan Poe portfolio, 1971
Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco -
Nathan Oliveira, VIIP, unpublished trial proof for [Plate] VII from the suite, To Edgar Allan Poe, 1971
Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco -
Charles Allan (C.A.) Gilbert, Scribner"s May (Life at Wellesley) by Miss Goadlau, 19th - 20th century
Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco -
Ward, Leslie Matthew (Spy), "The Gateshead Giant" (Mr. William Allan, M.P.), Statesman No. 623, from Vanity Fair, October 26, 1893, 1893
Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco -
Antonio Frasconi, The Face of Edgar Allan Poe. With a Note on Poe by Charles Baudelaire, translated by Lois and Francis E. Hyslop Jr. ([New York: n. p., 1959]), 1959
Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco -
Antonio Frasconi, Untitled ( Poe), sixth plate in the book The Face of Edgar Allan Poe. With a Note on Poe by Charles Baudelaire, translated by Lois and Francis E. Hyslop Jr. ([New York: n. p., 1959]), 1959
Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco -
Antonio Frasconi, Untitled (Poe with Raven), fifth plate in the book The Face of Edgar Allan Poe. With a Note on Poe by Charles Baudelaire, translated by Lois and Francis E. Hyslop Jr. ([New York: n. p., 1959]), 1959
Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco -
Antonio Frasconi, Untitled (portrait of Poe), frontispiece in the book The Face of Edgar Allan Poe. With a Note on Poe by Charles Baudelaire, translated by Lois and Francis E. Hyslop Jr. ([New York: n. p., 1959]), 1959
Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco -
Antonio Frasconi, Untitled (Poe"s Head), first plate in the book The Face of Edgar Allan Poe. With a Note on Poe by Charles Baudelaire, translated by Lois and Francis E. Hyslop Jr. ([New York: n. p., 1959]), 1959
Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco -
Antonio Frasconi, Untitled (Poe in chair with cat ), second plate in the book The Face of Edgar Allan Poe. With a Note on Poe by Charles Baudelaire, translated by Lois and Francis E. Hyslop Jr. ([New York: n. p., 1959]), 1959
Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco -
Stanley Mouse and Alton Kelley, San Francisco Rock Poster; Family Dog Productions, "Edgar Allan Poe," Daily Flash; Country Joe amd the Fish; Avalon Ballroom, 10/21-22/66, 1966
Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco -
Nathan Oliveira, (Poster) To Edgar Allan Poe: exhibition of trial proofs and published lithographs at The Stanford University Museum of Art, October 9-November 28, 1971, 20th century
Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco -
Antonio Frasconi, Untitled (Poe with patterned waistcoat),third plate in the book The Face of Edgar Allan Poe. With a Note on Poe by Charles Baudelaire, translated by Lois and Francis E. Hyslop Jr. ([New York: n. p., 1959]), 1959
Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco -
Antonio Frasconi, Untitled (bllurred forms),tenth plate in the book The Face of Edgar Allan Poe. With a Note on Poe by Charles Baudelaire, translated by Lois and Francis E. Hyslop Jr. ([New York: n. p., 1959]), 1959

Artnews Articles and Exhibition Information: (8)
Click on any of the links below to read about artnews or exhibitions related to Kaprow

Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery: Nono Reinhold: The Stairs
In 1957 the artist rented a fifth-floor room in the rue Hautefeuille in Paris where she has lived and worked for part of each year. The series of prints exhibited here reflects many years of thinking about the form (and symbolism) of the...
Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art: do it
Those charged with the execution of the artworks must exercise their interpretative skills, for, like a musical composition, each version of a work in do it is meant to be a uniqu...
Stiftung Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum: POP CARS. America – Europe
The Lehmbruck Museum project will be the result of in-depth research, and will present groups of work on the topic from the Gottfried Schultz VW collection, the BMW Car Collection (Warhol), the DaimlerChrysler Collection (Cars by Warhol), the ADAC (G...
Southeast Museum of Photography: Photojournalism from James Nachtwey, Robert Lerner and John Cohen
A Lens To The World - Photographs by Robert Lerner This retrospective exhibition surveys Bob Lerner's work for Look magazine during its heyday in the fifties and sixties. During his career Lerner photographed throughout the world and in all ...
Los Angeles County Museum of Art: MAKING: Unique Installations Created by 5 Art Schools
MAKING is intended to bring the interests, perspectives, and insights of L.A.’s next generation of artists to museum audiences, as the artists examine the dynamics of art making through collaborative projects. The four large-scale installations el...
Dia Center for the Arts: Playback: A Retrospective of Work by Robert Whitman
Pioneering in its use of media as art material, Whitman's performance work is among the most influential of its period. His involvement with multi-media performance-based works began in 1960 when, together with fellow artists Allan Kaprow, Jim ...
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art: Roy Lichtenstein: All About Art
This major exhibition features approximately eighty paintings and drawings by Lichtenstein (1923–1997) and traces the artist’s fascination with the painted image and the act of art-making over his nearly forty-year career. Best known as a pop arti...
Cincinnati Art Museum: Jim Dine: Walking Memory, 1959–1969

During the first ten years of his professional career, Jim Dine began his lifelong pursuit of the themes of the self, the body, and memory through a variety of mediums--painting, performance, mixed-media assemblage,...

Further Artwork and Information:

Allan Kaprow
Multimedia From Wagner to Virtual Reality
Allan Kaprow artist portrait, brief biography and art
Allan Kaprow (1866 - 1944) Biography, Artwork Images, Exhibitions, Reviews
ABR 10-11/94
allan kaprow
HighBeam Research: Library Search: Results
UCSD Visual Arts | Faculty
Allan KAPROW - Artpool Fluxus Library
Blurring Art and Life: Allan Kaprows Happenings Online Course

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