18 Happenings in 6 Parts, Reuben Gallery, New York, October 1959
Fred W. McDarrah
American, 1926–2007
1959
A gelatin silver print by Fred W. McDarrah that documents a shirtless participant arranging prop-like objects during preparations for Allan Kaprow’s 1959 event '18 Happenings in 6 Parts,' aiming to record the hands-on, improvised making behind an early happening.
The image hits you with an intimate, work-in-progress feel—the crouched figure focused over a neat row of bulbous objects amid scattered wood, paint cans, and rumpled paper, rendered in high-contrast black-and-white that emphasizes skin, grain, and dust.
It makes visible the collaborative, process-driven labor at the heart of postwar performance art, showing how Kaprow’s happenings opened up new forms of participatory, ephemeral art and shifted attention from finished objects to event and action.
Medium
Gelatin silver print
Dimensions
composition and sheet: 7 1/2 x 9 1/2" (19.1 x 24.1 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of the Estate of Fred W. McDarrah
Accession
1216.2013.3
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
