A Short Memoir about Happenings

The Happening movement was going on during the early 1960’s. Grandpa Phil and I were in New York on business. We had a friend who owned an art gallery in Greenwich village. His gallery showed some of my etchings and monoprints. It was called the Alonzo gallery. Jack Alonzo knew about the various Happenings that were going on in the city and invited us to go with him to a Happening in the village. It was being produced by Alan Kaprow, who was one of the inventors of the Happening Movement. The date was around 1965 I believe. I think that John Cage was also involved in this happening and Andy Warhol. We went to a loft space where bleachers were set up and an area was cleared where the activities began. It had a beginning. Everyone paid to get in and then we climbed up on the bleachers. It was not a large space so I doubt if there were about 50 to 100 people in the audience and all of us were crowded together so it was a bit worrisome as to the danger of a fire.

There was a large dark green make-shift curtain in the front and all around the stage area and the audience area. It is like we were all in a container. There was no formal beginning or end but when the people in attendance were all arranged and seated, different actors or artists appeared in the front holding large objects and pieces of paper and wood and metal that they put on each other or used to build up a structure. The space was not well lit so all of this occurred in a sort of dark atmosphere except where there was a spotlight aimed at a particular structure being built.

I guess you could call it something like 3-D collage with people. There was no dialog. It was like a silent movie except for the music. I believe the music was by John Cage and it was percussive and appropriate. The entire activity was actually very humorous and everyone was laughing at times, perhaps self consciously. There were not different acts or spaces between events. The activities flowed into each other. It was not like Blue Man Group and no one was throwing anything but some of the actors did disrobe and the audience tittered when that happened. I can’t remember how long it lasted, but it seemed to take forever. As there was no obvious end, we just left after we thought we had seen enough of it.

When it was over we all thought it was very funny and silly and didn’t take it very seriously. I don’t know if that Happening was meant to be serious or not. That was the only official one I went to. Afterwards, when I was in art school in the 1960’s, some of my colleagues put on Happenings, too. Also more or less collage-like events or assemblages on a stage.

Another artist that was active at that time was Les Levine. Among other thing, he made throw away art or art for the masses. That is objects that were disposable. I doubt if anyone disposed of them. I think he too fits in the Fluxus movement. I liked him a lot and was inspired to make my artist’s books because of his ideas. That is, art that was not precious or in an art museum but rather media generated or made out of ordinary materials. I made some prints using the Xerox machine at that time. One of them is in a book that the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago produced about Artist’s Books.