ALLAN KAPROW
Yard
#Supplement
Yard was originally made in 1961 for the group exhibition Environments, Situations, Spaces at the Martha Jackson Gallery in New York. In the gallery courtyard, Kaprow randomly arranged hundreds of used tires, from which five mounds of tar paper emerged, covering sculptures from Martha Jackson’s collection. Visitors were encouraged to walk on the tires and freely throw them around.
Like the other Environments, Yard is conceived as a work in transformation—a conceptual score to be rearranged in different spaces each time adapting to the peculiarities of the place.
For its first presentation in Rome, Yard is installed in the MACRO courtyard, ideally referencing that of the New York gallery.
Today, Yard remains a manifesto for an art capable of blending with existing spaces and the social contexts in which it is situated, challenging the notion of the artist’s individual power in favor of collectivity, and rejecting the idea that an artwork should necessarily aspire to a definitive status.
ALLAN KAPROW (Atlantic City, 1927 – Encinitas, CA, 2006) was an American artist and theoretician, renowned for pioneering Happenings and significantly contributing to performance and installation art. He earned a BA from New York University, and an MA in art history from Columbia University under the guidance of Meyer Schapiro. Kaprow trained in painting at the Hans Hofmann School and studied with John Cage at the New School. He co-founded the Hansa Gallery and the Reuben Gallery. His influential works include 18 Happenings in 6 Parts (1959) and Yard (1961). His exhibitions have been featured at institutions such as the Guggenheim Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Pasadena Art Museum. Kaprow taught at Rutgers, SUNY Stony Brook, CalArts, and UC San Diego, and authored notable publications such as Assemblage, Environments, and Happenings (1966) and Essays on the Blurring of Art and Life (1993). Among other things, his work focused on audience participation and everyday materials, influencing the development of contemporary art practices.
Heartfelt thanks to: Glenstone Museum, Potomac, Maryland and Allan Kaprow Estate, Hauser & Wirth, Pietro Rigolo, Margherita Scattolari, Giovanni Luci, Gruppo Lg Pneumatici Srl
Partner beverage: Gin Mare
On 6 September 2024, from 7 pm, on the occasion of Sonata, the audio of Allan Kaprow’s How to Make a Happening will be played in the auditorium.