ELECTRIFYING EVENTS: HAPPENINGS, 3rd Rail Gallery of Current Art, New York, 1964
Artists: Wolf Vostell, Art Brenner, Al Hansen
Opening: May 24–25, 1964, 9 p.m.
Dimensions: 34.4 x 11.5 cm
Further Information: Founded by Al Hansen in 1962, the 3rd Rail Gallery in Brooklyn was a popular venue for his and his colleagues’ happenings. Hansen, who referred to himself as “Viking Dada,” took a class at the New School for Social Research in New York City in 1958, led by the composer and Fluxus artist John Cage. Many other happening and Fluxus artists, such as George Brecht, Dick Higgins, Allan Kaprow, and Jackson Mac Low also attended the same class. Much like his colleagues Allan Kaprow and Wolf Vostell, Hansen is sometimes referred to as the “inventor of happenings”: while serving in Frankfurt in the 82nd Airborne Division (1945–48), he pushed a piano off the roof of a five-storey building, during an Armed Forces show.
ALW
Images: Images of the invitation and all other archival documents shown on this page are part of the online collection of Archiv der Avantgarden, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden.
