Allan Kaprow: Malerei 1946–1957 – Eine Werkschau

The early paintings by Allan Kaprow have never been seen before

Allan Kaprow (1927-2006) enjoyed worldwide fame primarily as a performance artist. But it is not just the fact that the term "happening" can be traced back to him - he coined this art form in the late 1950s in New York; his environments - huge, changeable installations made from car tyres, barrels or blocks of ice - are also regarded as milestones in recent art history. Meanwhile, Allan Kaprow began his artistic career as a painter, not least in the context of his studies with Hans Hofmann; he also studied art history with Meyer Shapiro and composition with John Cage, showing himself to be open not only to theory early on, but also to a wide variety of artistic and world-interpretative approaches. In doing so, he always moved between the poles of intuition, open form and reference to time on the one hand and reflective practice as a theorist and art historian on the other. The exhibition at the Villa Merkel in Esslingen is the first to be devoted exclusively to his early painterly work created between 1946 and 1957 and reveals the models that the young artist orientated himself on and worked with, whereby his interest in questions of space and his endeavours to short-circuit the achievements of Jackson Pollock and John Cage are particularly striking. This extends to the works he created in the mid-1950s, which he called "action collages" and in which he gradually incorporated everyday materials and objects. The exhibition and book present a wealth of paintings by Allan Kaprow that have never been seen before.

Exhibition:
Villa Merkel Esslingen, 19/3-28/5/2017