Allan Kaprow was one of the pioneers of performance art, and what were known as “Happenings” in the 50’s and 60’s.  Kaprow was an art teacher and a figurehead in the early years of Contemporary Art.

His article The Legacy of Jackson Pollock was one that was quite interesting, and truly brought to light the spirit of Jackson Pollock, and why his painting techniques were so remarkable.  To get a better feel for Pollock, I watched some of the Jackson Pollock documentary.

In this, it not only talks about Pollock as a painter, but it also talks about his life.

After gaining a better understanding of Pollock’s life, I was better able to grasp where he got the inspiration for his work-nowhere.  Jackson Pollocks painting was truly a release for him, a way of letting go of whatever stresses or good feelings he had.

Moreover, his paintings were not constricted to the page and in no way could be replicated, much the Happenings in New York.  “Happenings are,” as Kaprow puts them, “events that, put simply, happen.”

The best way I can imagine a Happening is an outdoor concert, just imagine:

Its June 16th, Phish, a world renowned jam-band, is getting ready to play.  The setlist has been agreed upon two weeks in advance.  Right before Phish is scheduled to come on stage the sound of thunder is heard and it begins to pour.  This my friends, is (in some ways) a Happening.  Kaprow loosely defines a happening as a performance art that has a set of planned out notes with what the artist knows will happen, and the artist keeps in their head, what they hope will happen.  This hope  is what is known as chance.  Chance, not spontaneity, is something that implies risk and fear and not exactly knowing what will happen next, only having a hopeful idea, along with the risk and fear which chance implies.

Kaprow says that Happening “simply happen,” so really there is almost no clear certainty regarding any of these works, much like the works of Jackson Pollock.  His paintings were abstract, yet he must have had some sort of plan, much like the Happenings.  Happenings did not only contain what the artist meant for them to, they also held the audience, and everything the audience brought with them (formal knowledge or ideas, not car keys, purses, etc..) and so did Pollocks paintings.  His paintings not only were huge, but they extended out into the rest of the space they were in; in other words, much like his paintings, while impossible to reproduce, happenings were everywhere and embodied everything around them.