`Happenings' is the term coined by 1960s avantgarde artists for their own unique type of performance event. Together, they formed one of the most influential experimental movements of the century; yet also one of the least-well understood. Bringing together radical visual innovation with live performance, Happenings galvanised both fine artists and performers. Articles, statements, interviews and essays by and about some of the most influential avantgardists of the era are presented here for the first time since their original publication. They include: * Allan Kaprow * John Cage * Yvonne Rainer * Claes Oldenburg * Ann Halprin * George Maciunas Happenings and Other Acts is a unique and important collection of original material, and concludes with a substantial, specially commissioned essay by Günter Berghaus on European Happenings.
Biography
Mariellen Sandford
'This book is a major contribution to our understanding of the history of Performance Art ... Mariellen Sanford and the publishers deserve our gratitude. Whether your main focus is Drama, Dance or Music there is much to excite and stimulate in this volume which provides both practitioners and students with a unique resource for exploration and understanding.' - Performing Arts International
'The brouhaha surrounding Damien Hirst's sheep, Cornelia Parker and Tilda Swinton's Matilda Swinton (1960- ) and Hans Ulrich Obrist's second-hand clothes show at the Serpentine Gallery in London suggests that many of us are still uncertain of the limits of the definition of Art. Happenings and Other Acts takes us to the source of this particular fountain, where one can bathe in the vital experimentation and sheer wonderment of making art beyond art and I for one came away feeling refreshed and more able to face the suffocating cynicism which permeates so much of the work made in the 1980s and '90s.' - Andrew Deakin, Performing Arts International
