18 Happenings in 6 Parts, Reuben Gallery, New York, October 1959
Fred W. McDarrah
American, 1926–2007
1959 (printed 1992)
Fred W. McDarrah's gelatin silver print records a technician at work assembling projectors, tape machines, and wiring for the 1959 presentation of 18 Happenings in 6 Parts, aiming to document the behind‑the‑scenes labor that made the performance possible.
What strikes you is the man's concentrated profile framed by a messy, tactile array of reels, vacuum tubes, and wooden rigs, where everyday technical clutter reads like an intimate portrait of manual effort.
The photograph exposes the material infrastructure of early performance art, showing how photographic documentation converted ephemeral happenings into reproducible evidence and shaped their place in art history.
Medium
Gelatin silver print
Dimensions
composition: 7 3/8 x 7 1/2" (18.7 x 19 cm); sheet: 9 15/16 x 7 15/16" (25.3 x 20.2 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of the Estate of Fred W. McDarrah
Accession
1216.2013.13
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
