MoCA's Allan Kaprow: Art as Life

I just got back from the press opening for Allan Kaprow, "Art as Life" which will be at MoCA's Little Tokyo space from March 23 to June 30. The show is a coming home of sorts, having been organized in Europe mostly around the Getty Research Institute's collection of Allan Kaprow's papers. GRI's California Video curator Glenn Phillips was there, along with many of Allan's friends and students from his days in Southern California. Above is Barbara Smith's reinvention of Push Pull with Barbara (left in picture) making sure no one pushes or pulls anything before the opening tomorrow evening. A group of Allan's close friends will be making the first scuff marks with the blue-painted furniture, and then it will be open to the public to push and pull as they may.
There are a few object-based works in the show, including his 1957 Rearrangable Panels (above) lent by the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris. I expect MoCA will do a better job caring for the work than Beaubourg did with LACMA's. The far wall is lined with Kaprow's paintings, dated from 1947 to 1957. They are of their era--very AbEx--with elements of collage and gesture. A scribble on one painting looks like it says, "Call Greenberg." Perhaps it was Clement not taking the call that spurred Allan to innovate and leave the stretcher bars and rabbit skin glue behind.
In the center of the exhibition is Suzanne Lacy's (seated far right) Trade Talk (which could also be called Talking Dirt for the composition of the floor). Here participants in Allan Kaprow's Happenings will be able to talk about their experience, where it will be recorded for posterity. In the back is a telephone booth where individuals can "phone in" their experiences. Unfortunately, there was quite a bit of noise coming from John Baldessari's reinvention of Kaprow's "Apple Shrine," and Allan Ruppersberg's reinvention of "Words."

After reading about some of the exhibition's other stops, it seems that MoCA has done a better job of installing the show, incorporating the Happenings into their website and involving local communities, and using artist-colleagues to build the installations. New technologies (like Apple computers) are mixed with old school (like overhead projectors), keeping with the spirit and intention of the work without getting bogged down historical recreations and precious materiality. Kudos.
I came across the original score for Burbank (above), which I riffed on here. If you're a glutton for reading, you can wait until May 13 when Lawrence Weiner opens in the other half of the Geffen. In the meantime, check out MoCA's calendar for a schedule of the Happenings, and experience Kaprow's art through participation.
Here's the score for Publicity, which CalArts will be reinventing on Sunday, May 4th at Vasquez Rocks.

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