chronology

1927-1946

1927 Born August 23 In Atlantic City NJ.
Kaprow's ancestors are immigrated Russian Jews from Dnepropetrovsk and Kiev.
1933-1942 Boarding school on ranch 1n Tucson, Arizona. Absorbs both the culture of the Wild West and the culture of the native Americans. Draws and starts showing interest in art.
1942-1945 Attends the renowned High School of Music and Art in New York. Among his fellow students are the artists Wolf Kahn, Rachel Rosenthal and the future New York gallerist Virginia Zabriskie.
1945-1949 Studies Philosophy and Art History at New York University.

1947-1957

1947-1948 Studies painting with Hans Hofmann at his School of Fine Arts, New York.
1949-1950 Continues studying philosophy at New York University.
1950-1952 Studies Art History with Meyer Shapiro at Columbia University, New York. Writes his first essay on Jackson Pollock in 1950 and graduates with an extended essay on Piet Mondrian.
1952 Founds the Hansa Gallery in New York together with his fellow students (Wolf Kahn, Richard Stankiewicz, Miles and Barbara Forst, Jean Follet and Jan Müller) from the Hans Hofmann class.
1953 Moves to Rubin Farm in North Brunswick and uses a large concrete shed as studio. The chicken farm of George Segal is 1n the neighborhood and Kaprow and he became friends since that time.
1953-1961 From 1953 to 1956 Instructor at the Department of Fine Arts of Rutgers University, New Brunswick NJ. From 1956 to 1961 Assistant Professor of Art History at the Department of Fine Arts of Rutgers University, New Brunswick NJ [»].

1958-1960

1957-1958 Studies composition with John Cage at the New School for Social Research, New York.
1958 Publishes 'The Legacy of Jackson Pollock'. In it he demands a "concrete art" made of everyday materials such as "paint, chairs, food, electric and neon lights, smoke, water, old socks, a dog, movies." The new subjects are: unheard-of happenings and events, found in garbage cans, police files, hotel lobbies, seen in store windows and on the streets; and sensed in dreams and horrible accidents. An odor of crushed strawberries, a letter from a friend, or a billboard selling Drano [...]. Uses the word 'happening' for the first time in this text. Exhibition 'Untitled Environment', Hansa Gallery New York NY.
1959 Gives precise instructions for a happening for the first time with the text 'Something to take place: A Happening' in the magazine The Anthologist.
Co-founder of the Reuben Gallery, New York. On occasion of the opening during six evenings '18 Happenings in 6 Parts' take place. Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg are among the performers. Influenced by Jackson Pollock's process of action painting, the teachings of John Cage on chance and indeterminacy in art, and ultimately Dadaism, Kaprow defines a happening as a choreographed event that facilitates spontaneous interactions between objects—which include performers—and visitors.
1960 Teaches Aesthetics at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York. Director (1961 Codirector) of the Judson Gallery, New York. Exhibits 'Appleshrine' in the same gallery.

1961-1966

1961-1968 Associate Professor, Department of Fine Arts at State University of New York in Stony Brook, New York.
1962 Exhibition 'Allan Kaprow. Words', at the Smolin Gallery New York NY.
1963 Starts participating actively in the discussion on the education of artists and at museums and schools. His whole life he publishes numerous writings on this subject: he gets research assignments, takes part in forum discussions and last but not least works as a teacher.
1965 Until 1966 Director Experimental Education, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, Massachusetts.
1966 Professor, Department of Fine Arts, State University of New York, Stony Brook, New York. George Brecht [»], George Segal, Bob Watts and Roy Lichtenstein have also taught there.
Publishes at Harry N. Abrams in New York the standard work Assemblage. Environments and Happenings after many years of preparation. The book is an essay on the new forms of art and was for the greater part written in 19S9. In the book, works of many artists are shown, but it is not an encyclopedic work.
Happenings The Happenings in this period are large and culminate in an event financed by television at Long Island In 1966. This event supplied highly spectacular mediagenic images. In 'Gas' for example, large amounts of fire extinguishing foam are seen, which are sliding off a slope together with heavy barrels. Kaprow later disassociated himself from this exaggerated event-character.

1967-1969

1968 Associate Director (along with Herbert Kohl), pedagogic experiment 'Project Other Ways' in the Berkeley Public Schools, Berkely CA.
1969 Associate Dean, California Institute of the Arts, Surbank and Valencia CA.
Activity Booklets In 1967 and 1968 the first activity booklets emerge, as Moving and Record II. These mainly exist of photos bound in a booklet, in which the text of the scores isn't directly placed with the photos.
Happenings The happenings get more physical and are executed by smaller groups of participants. There are even actions which resemble sculpture.
Exhibitions
- 1967 The Pasadena Art Museum organizes the first survey exhibition of Allan Kaprow's work. The exhibition travels to the Washington University, St. Louis (Missouri) and the University of Texas In Austin. Kaprow generally has a critical attitude regarding museums. According to him art is killed by museums. He wants them to play a more active role as "agency for action." Since, Kaprow's statements on the situation about institutions which exhibit art, are often polemic but also businesslike. 'Pictures to be Read, Poetry to be Seen', Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Chicago IL.

1970-1975

1971 Starts the publication of his ironic essay for / about artists: 'The Education of the Un-Artist, Part I. Part II and III appear respectively in 1972 and 1974.
1973 Professor, California Institute of the Arts, Valencia CA. Trustee, Pasadena Museum of Modern Art, Pasadena CA. Chairman Committee of Education.
1974 Professor Visual Arts Departnent, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla CA. Advisor/member of panel, Visual Arts Program, The National Endowment for the Arts, Washington DC.
Happenings/Activities Many of the 'happenings' originate with students in relation to his chair at CalArts. Since the beginning of the seventies. Kaprow rather uses the word 'activities'. Many works are published In the shape of an activity booklet. Many of the films and videos of his work originated in this period, take over the aesthetics of these little black books. Later. Kaprow rejects the idea of activity booklets, because the participants were only imitating the contents.
Exhibitions Kaprow has several exhibitions in galleries in Italy and Germany in these years.
- 1970 Takes part in group exposition 'Happening and Fluxus', in the Neuer Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne, with the happening 'Sawdust'.
- 1971 Gallery Inge Baecker, Bochum.
- 1973 'Contemporanea. Incontri Internazionali d’Arte', Parcheggio di Villa Borghese, Rome.

1976-1981

1980 and 1981 Acting chairman, Visual Arts Department, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla CA.
Happenings/Activities Kaprow still publishes activity booklets with his activities. Formally more independent than before videos also originate. For some time Kaprow is engaged with Zen Buddhism. At the end of the seventies he starts meditating himself. The character of his work becomes more personal and more daily at the same time.
In 1979 Kaprow uses the medium activity booklet for the last time. Instead of the two failed exhibitions In Germany, Kaprow decides to organize a 'European Tour' by offering friends in different cities a happening/activity in exchange for board and lodging.
Exhibitions Exhibitions are organized in galleries in Germany (1976 'Frames of Mind', Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin; 1977 documenta 6, Kassel), Austria and The Netherlands. The Kunsthalle Bremen dedicates itself to the documentary aspect of transient art. Expositions show pictures out of the activity booklets as blow ups.
It is always the university institutions that either offer Kaprow presentations or act as sponsors of happenings/activities. Nevertheless Kaprow is invited regularly for important group exhibitions in America and Europe. Plans for bigger solo exhibitions in museums 1n Hamburg (Kunsthalle) and Cologne (Museum Ludwig), prove hard to execute and are canceled.
- 1976 Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles CA. 'Allan Kaprow. Activity-Dokumente 1968-1976', Kunsthalle Bremen, Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art, Galerie René Block, Berlin.
- 1978 Museum of the University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, Iowa.
- 1979 Ulrich Museum, Wichita State University, Wichita KA; 'Tower of Tires' (public sculpture commission), Ruhrpark Bochum.
- 1981'California Performance: Then and Now. Museum of Contemporary Art', Chicago, Illinois. 'Westkunst. Zeitgenössische Kunst seit 1939', Museun Ludwig, Cologne. 'Schwarz', Kunsthalle Düsseldorf.

1982-1988

1982-1988 Just as the organizing of exhibitions by museums (seen by Kaprow as insufficient for his working practice) is funded with public money, Kaprow sees it as his task as an artist to teach.
1985 Department chair, Visual Arts Department, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla CA.
Exhibitions The Museum am Ostwall, Dortmund organizes a traditional survey exhibition with reinventions of environments, happenings and new activities. Two years later, the project in Texas follows a different method. It doesn't start from a static definition of work, but talks about the exposition as a 'retrospective occupation'. New, partly radically changed versions of happenings/activities, are executed and a symposium is organised.
- 1984 'Blam! The Explosion of Pop, Minimalism and Performance 1958-1964', Whitney Museum of American Art, New York NY.
- 1986 'Allan Kaprow. Collagen, Environments, Videos, Broschüren, Geschichten, Happening und Activity-Dokumente 1956-1986', Museum am Ostwall, Dortmund and 'Making an Art of Everyday Life', The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York NY.
- 1988 'Allan Kaprow. Precedings', The Carter Center for Contemporary Art, University of Texas at Arlington.

1989-2006

1998-2006 Since the beginning of the nineties. Kaprow is emeritus of the University of California, San Diego CA. Much of what he does since, is not documented and is not meant to become public anyway. In this period, his writings (Essays on the Blurring of Life and Art, 1993) and an extensive biographic presentation of his life works (Jeff Kelley, Childsplay. The Art of Allan Kaprow, 2004) appear.
1997 Visiting professor, Fondazione Antonio Ratti, Como, Italy.
2006 Died the 5th of April in Encinitas CA.
Exhibitions
- 1991 '7 Environments' Fondazione Mudima, Milan, and Studio Morra, Naples, Italy.
- 1992 '4 Environments', Espace Donguy. Paris, and La Zonmééé, Montreuil. Studio Morra, '7 Environments', Naples/IT Espace Donguy/Apegac, '4 Environments', Paris/FR
- 1994 'Work in Progress by Allan Kaprow', Centre Pompidou, Paris (in preparation for exhibition 'Hors Limites. L’art et la vie 1952–1994').
- 1996 'Allan Kaprow. Inventions/Reinventions', Kunsthalle Palazzo Liestal.
- 1997 'Sunshine & Noir. Art in Los Angeles, 1968-1997', Humlebaek, Denmark. Travels to Wolfsburg, Turin, Los Angeles; 'Drawing', Hyde Gallery, Grossmont College, El Cajon CA; 'Allan Kaprow. Installation', Biblioteca Communale Como; 'Photo-Text. Plans of Happenings 1960s-1970s', Archivio Conz Verona; 'Just Doing', Fondazione Antonio Ratti Como and Galleria Caterina Gualco, Genua.
- 1998 'Out of Actions. Between Performance and the Object, 1949-1979', Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles CA. Travels to Vienna, Barcelona, Tokyo.
- 2005 'A Short History of Performance – Part III. Allan Kaprow', Whitechapel Art Gallery, London.
- 2006 'Allan Kaprow. Art as Life', Haus der Kunst, Munich. Travels to Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven; Kunsthalle Bern; Museo Villa Groce Genova; Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles CA.