Assemblage, Environments & Happenings
New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1966. First edition, first printing. Solid square hardcover, 12.25 x 12.25 inches, bound in brown burlap, text pages on kraft paper. Vertical surface creases to some sections not marring text or photographs in any way, spine barely sunned a shade, a tight and clean copy of a scarce book lacking the original clear jacket, in custom mylar cover. Item #222302
IT WAS ALWAYS HAPPENING
Take the book and place it on a flat surface and start turning the pages slowly, the grainy black and white images setting a course of action as disturbing as a dream unfixed from the dreamer. Was it really then or now, the book exclaims, in a mire of events built on when it was happening. In this moment, entering the book, nothing is clear but that art is timeless, boundless, fearless. Step. Right. In.
Thanks to the publisher, Harry Abrams, we have an art document that preserves a truly ephemeral American movement that resisted form, defied space, and transformed the expectant eye of the audience. Kaprow's book design allows space for entering and contemplation before jarring you back to the moment. His text is clear and easy, should you accept the premise. Before you know it, connections come to light: Schwitters, Duchamp, Pollock, art brut, a sixties babel of motion in creation.
With a Selection of Scenarios by 9 Japanese of the Gutai Group, Jean Jacques Lebel, Wolf Vostell, George Brecht, Kenneth Dewey, Milan Knizak, Allan Kaprow.
Price: $350.00