Allan Kaprow, Robert Smithson, and the Limits to Art

From the Inside Flap

"Dr. Ursprung s exquisite research yields valuable knowledge concerning two of art history s most underserved artists, Allan Kaprow and Robert Smithson, to propose that the assumed contiguity of traditional art history has marginalized both Kaprow s Happenings and Smithson s oeuvre. Moreover, the author reveals the importance of photography and writing in both of the artist s works, and how their expansion of the artwork as textual and discursive has been thus far ignored by traditional art historian definitions." Mark Cameron Boyd, Professor of Art Theory, Corcoran College of Art + Design "Although few post-1945 American artists more nimbly pushed the limits of art than Allan Kaprow and Robert Smithson, their multivalent practices in which writing figured prominently seldom have been considered in relation to each other. In this scrupulously researched, methodologically heterodox, and highly readable book, Philip Ursprung snaps off the handcuffs happenings and earthworks and allows his subjects to walk free so as to juxtapose their achievements and present the most nuanced and illuminating account of them we have to date. The result is a landmark study of the reconfiguration of the environment of art and a fearless contribution to understanding the present, not least of all the role of institutions and historians in monopolizing cultural meanings." Edward Dimendberg, author of Diller Scofidio + Renfro: Architecture after Images

Mark Cameron Boyd

"Dr. Ursprung’s exquisite research yields valuable knowledge concerning two of art history’s most underserved artists, Allan Kaprow and Robert Smithson, to propose that the assumed contiguity of traditional art history has marginalized both Kaprow’s Happenings and Smithson’s oeuvre. Moreover, the author reveals the importance of photography and writing in both of the artist’s works, and how their expansion of the artwork as textual and discursive has been thus far ignored by traditional art historian definitions." Mark Cameron Boyd, Professor of Art Theory, Corcoran College of Art + Design "Although few post-1945 American artists more nimbly pushed the limits of art than Allan Kaprow and Robert Smithson, their multivalent practices in which writing figured prominently seldom have been considered in relation to each other. In this scrupulously researched, methodologically heterodox, and highly readable book, Philip Ursprung snaps off the handcuffs “happenings” and “earthworks” and allows his subjects to walk free so as to juxtapose their achievements and present the most nuanced and illuminating account of them we have to date. The result is a landmark study of the reconfiguration of the environment of art and a fearless contribution to understanding the present, not least of all the role of institutions and historians in monopolizing cultural meanings." Edward Dimendberg, author of Diller Scofidio + Renfro: Architecture after Images