Synopses & Reviews
"Dr. Ursprungand#8217;s exquisite research yields valuable knowledge concerning two of art historyand#8217;s most underserved artists, Allan Kaprow and Robert Smithson, to propose that the assumed contiguity of traditional art history has marginalized both Kaprowand#8217;s Happenings and Smithsonand#8217;s oeuvre. Moreover, the author reveals the importance of photography and writing in both of the artistand#8217;s works, and how their expansion of the artwork as textual and discursive has been thus far ignored by traditional art historian definitions."
Mark Cameron Boyd, Professor of Art Theory, Corcoran College of Art + Design
"Although few post-1945 American artists more nimbly pushed the limits of art than Allan Kaprow and Robert Smithson, their multivalent practices in which writing figured prominently seldom have been considered in relation to each other. In this scrupulously researched, methodologically heterodox, and highly readable book, Philip Ursprung snaps off the handcuffs and#147;happeningsand#8221; and and#147;earthworksand#8221; and allows his subjects to walk free so as to juxtapose their achievements and present the most nuanced and illuminating account of them we have to date. The result is a landmark study of the reconfiguration of the environment of art and a fearless contribution to understanding the present, not least of all the role of institutions and historians in monopolizing cultural meanings."
Edward Dimendberg, author of Diller Scofidio + Renfro: Architecture after Images
and#160;
Synopsis
This innovative study of two of the most important artists of the twentieth century links the art practices of Allan Kaprow and Robert Smithson in their attempts to test the limits of art--both what it is and where it is. Ursprung provides a sophisticated yet accessible analysis, placing the two artists firmly in the art world of the 1960s as well as in the art historical discourse of the following decades. Although their practices were quite different, they both extended the studio and gallery into desert landscapes, abandoned warehouses, industrial sites, train stations, and other spaces. Ursprung bolsters his argument with substantial archival research and sociological and economic models of expansion and limits.
About the Author
Philip Ursprung is Swiss National Science Foundation Professor for Art History at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Visiting Curator at the Canadian Centre for Architecture, and an elected member of the Swiss Federal Commission for the Arts.
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations
Preface and Acknowledgments
Introduction
Limits to Growth: The Sixties and Early Seventies
The Continental European Perspective
Allan Kaprow and the Limits to Painting
and#147;Oedipaland#151;just for funand#8221;: Allan Kaprow and Art History
Environments
and#147;The Legacy of Jackson Pollockand#8221;
The Hansa Gallery
Art and the Division of Labor: 18 Happenings in 6 Parts
My 18 Happenings in 6 Parts
The Happenersand#8217; Bodies
A Service for the Dead
Calling
The Triumph of Pop Art
The Nonentry of Happenings into the Art Museum
and#147;Happenings in the New York Sceneand#8221;
Claes Oldenburg versus Allan Kaprow
Naturalism and Modernism
Performing Architecture
Site Specificity
Fluids
The Limits to Sculpture: Robert Smithson and Earth Art
The Excursions: Critiquing Minimalism
and#147;The Crystal Landand#8221;
and#147;The Monuments of Passaicand#8221;
and#147;Incidents of Mirror-Travel in the Yucatanand#8221;
Hotel Palenque
The Triumph of Minimal Art
The Sculpture Boom and the Case of Michael Fried
Robert Smithson and Marcel Duchamp
Dan Graham and the Legacy of Robert Smithson
Site and Nonsite
Robert Smithson as the Artistic Advisor to the Dallasand#150;Fort Worth Airport
A Nonsite (An Indoor Earthwork)
Limits
Earthworks
Entropy
Partially Buried Woodshed
Spiral Jetty
Political Landscape
Robert Smithson and Michael Heizer
The Military Sublime: Earth Art and the War in Vietnam
and#147;Cultural Confinementand#8221;
Broken Circle/Spiral Hill and the Land Reclamation Projects
The Limits to Art History
Texts, Ephemeral Media, and Technical Reproductions in Art Scholarship
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Art Credits
Index